BPCPPDYSOE21 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 5: Active Biological Matter I (joint session BP/CPP/DY)
DY 5.4: Talk
Monday, March 22, 2021, 10:10–10:30, BPb
Chemotaxis strategies of bacteria with multiple run-modes — Zahra Alirezaeizanjani1,2, •Robert Großmann1, Veronika Pfeifer1, Marius Hintsche1, and Carsten Beta1 — 1Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Bacterial chemotaxis – a fundamental example of directional navigation in the living world – is key to many biological processes, including the spreading of bacterial infections. Many bacterial species were recently reported to exhibit several distinct swimming modes – the flagella may, for example, push the cell body or wrap around it. How do the different run modes shape the chemotaxis strategy of a multi-mode swimmer? Here, we investigate chemotactic motion of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida as a model organism. By simultaneously tracking the position of the cell body and the configuration of its flagella, we demonstrate that individual run modes show different chemotactic responses in nutrition gradients and thus constitute distinct behavioral states. Based on an active particle model, we demonstrate that switching between multiple run states that differ in their speed and responsiveness provide the basis for robust and efficient chemotaxis in complex natural habitats.