Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Poster IIa

BP 14.6: Poster

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 18:00–20:30, Poster E

Swimming motility and chemotaxis strategy of Pseudomonas putida in porous media — •Sönke Beier, Veronika Pfeifer, Robert Großmann, and Carsten Beta — Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

The chemotaxis strategy of bacteria in liquids is well studied and can be explained in most cases by a run time bias. But how do they adapt their strategy in a porous environment, where there is only a small free path length?

By studying the population spreading and analyzing individual trajectories of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida in agar, we elucidate the effect of a porous medium on the swimming behavior of P. putida. For this purpose, we use a computer-automated event detection method to recognize the stop and turn events known from the movement pattern in liquid and characterize the trap events which occur in agar. By investigating the orientation of run phases, we found evidence that P. putida performs chemotaxis by adapting its swimming direction, similar to earlier report on the peritrichously flagellated intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, suggesting that this could be a generally strategy in many bacterial species.

Keywords: chemotaxis; motility; disordered environment; porous media; trajectories