相关论文: Hydrodynamics of bacteriophage migration along bac…
Bacterial contamination of biological conducts, catheters or water resources is a major threat to public health and can be amplified by the ability of bacteria to swim upstream. The mechanisms of this rheotaxis, the reorientation with…
Prior to pioneer surface adhesion, bacteria have to navigate in flows, often in confined environments. While much is known about their individual swimming dynamics, our understanding of their transport properties at the population level…
Bacterial swarming is a rapid mass-migration, in which thousands of cells spread collectively to colonize a surface. Physically, swarming is a natural example of active particles that use energy to generate motion. Accordingly,…
Bacteria and their viruses ("bacteriophages") coexist in natural environments forming complex infection networks. Recent empirical findings suggest that phage-bacteria infection networks often possess a nested structure such that there is a…
Many bacteria live in natural and clinical environments with abundant macromolecular polymers. Macromolecular fluids commonly display viscoelasticity and non-Newtonian rheological behavior; it is unclear how these complex-fluid properties…
Flagella are hair-like appendages attached to microorganisms that allow the organisms to traverse their fluid environment. The algae Volvox are spherical swimmers with thousands of individual flagella on their surface and their coordination…
Phagocytosis is the fundamental cellular process by which eukaryotic cells bind and engulf particles by their cell membrane. Particle engulfment involves particle recognition by cell-surface receptors, signaling and remodeling of the actin…
Traditional locomotion strategies become ineffective at low Reynolds numbers, where viscous forces predominate over inertial forces. To adapt, microorganisms have evolved specialized structures like cilia and flagella for efficient…
The millimeter-long soil-dwelling nematode {\it C. elegans} propels itself by producing undulations that propagate along its body and turns by assuming highly curved shapes. According to our recent study [PLoS ONE \textbf{7}, e40121 (2012)]…
Controlling bacterial surface adhesion and subsequent biofilm formation in fluid systems is crucial for the safety and efficacy of medical and industrial processes. Here, we theoretically examine the transport of bacteria close to surfaces,…
Flagella allow eukaryotic cells to move and pump fluid. We present the first three-dimensional, time-resolved imaging of the flagellar waveform of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a model alga found in fresh water. During the power stroke, we…
The phage $\lambda$ infection of an \textit{E. coli} cell has become a paradigm for understanding the molecular processes involved in gene expression and cell signaling. This system provides an example of a genetic switch, as cells with…
Bacteriophages (phages) are key regulators of bacterial populations and hold great promise for applications such as phage therapy, biocontrol, and industrial fermentation. The success of these applications depends on accurately determining…
Bacterial mobility is powered by rotation of helical flagellar filaments driven by rotary motors. Flagellin isolated from {\it Salmonella Typhimurium} SJW1660 strain, which differs by a point mutation from the wild-type strain, assembles…
The term bacteriophage means killer or eater of bacteria. They were initially discovered by F.W. Twort and later on, Felix d'Herelle unveiled them to the world in 1910. Phage therapy has arisen as a favorable option to conventional…
The fluctuation-dissipation theorem describes the intimate connection between the Brownian diffusion of thermal particles and their drag coefficients. In the simple case of spherical particles, it takes the form of the Stokes-Einstein…
Exploiting the "natural" frame of space curves, we formulate an intrinsic dynamics of twisted elastic filaments in viscous fluids. A pair of coupled nonlinear equations describing the temporal evolution of the filament's complex curvature…
The motion of a pair of micro-wedges ("carriers") in a turbulent bacterial bath is explored using computer simulations with explicit modeling of the bacteria and experiments. The orientation of the two micro-wedges is parallel and fixed by…
The motility of eukaryotic cells is strongly influenced by their environment, with confined cells often developing qualitatively different motility patterns from those migrating on simple two-dimensional substrates. Recent experiments,…
Filamentous cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and today still most abundant lifeforms on earth, with manifold implications in ecology and economics. Their flexible filaments, often several hundred cells long, exhibit gliding motility in…