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Related Experiment Videos

Curved tails in polymerization-based bacterial motility.

A D Rutenberg1, M Grant

  • 1Department of Physics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H 3J5.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|August 11, 2001
PubMed
Summary

Bacterial actin comet tails are formed by randomly pushing filaments. Tail curvature indicates the number of pushing filaments, revealing bacterial surface dynamics.

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Cell Biology
  • Biophysics

Background:

  • Actin polymerization drives motility in various pathogens like Listeria monocytogenes.
  • Characteristic "comet-tail" structures are observed, suggesting a common mechanism.
  • These tails are also seen with other bacteria, viruses, and in vitro systems.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the physical forces generating actin comet-tail curvature.
  • To determine the relationship between tail curvature and filament dynamics.
  • To establish a method for inferring bacterial surface activity from tail morphology.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling of actin filament interactions.
  • Analysis of actin tail curvature in Listeria monocytogenes.
  • Simulations to assess the impact of viscosity and force generation.

Main Results:

  • Randomly positioned actin filaments generate sufficient torque for tail curvature.
  • Curvature magnitude directly correlates with the number of actively pushing filaments.
  • This relationship is independent of environmental viscosity and molecular force generation details.

Conclusions:

  • Actin comet-tail curvature is a direct readout of the number of pushing filaments.
  • The dynamics of actin filaments at the bacterial surface can be inferred from tail curvature variations.
  • This provides a novel biophysical approach to study pathogen motility.

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