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Dissipative shocks behind bacteria gliding.

Epifanio G Virga1

  • 1Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Pavia, Via Ferrata 5, 27100 Pavia, Italy eg.virga@unipv.it.

Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences
|October 22, 2014
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Bacterial gliding motility, observed in myxobacteria and cyanobacteria, is explained by a new mechanical theory. The theory proves that the bacterium's gliding speed must equal its slime ejection speed for this locomotion to occur.

Keywords:
dissipative shocksgliding bacteriaone-dimensional continua

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Biophysics
  • Bacterial Motility

Background:

  • Gliding is a key bacterial locomotion mechanism on solid surfaces.
  • Slime extrusion is hypothesized to be central to gliding motility.
  • Existing theories lack a complete mechanical explanation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop and solve a comprehensive non-linear mechanical theory for bacterial gliding.
  • To elucidate the physical principles governing slime-mediated bacterial movement.
  • To test the hypothesis linking slime extrusion to gliding velocity.

Main Methods:

  • Developed a non-linear mechanical model for gliding bacteria.
  • Treated slime filament-substrate contact and ejection pores as dissipative shocks.
  • Solved the theory to determine conditions for kinematic compatibility.

Main Results:

  • The mechanical theory was fully solved, providing a quantitative description of gliding.
  • Kinematic compatibility requires the gliding velocity and slime ejection velocity to be equal.
  • This theoretical finding aligns with previous empirical observations.

Conclusions:

  • The study provides a robust mechanical explanation for bacterial gliding.
  • The equality of gliding and ejection velocities is a fundamental requirement for this motility.
  • The findings support the role of slime filaments in bacterial locomotion.