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We study the surface diffusion of the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp.PCC $6803$ during the incipient stages of cell contact with a glass surface inthe dilute regime. We observe a twitching motility with alternating immobile"tumble" and mobile "run" periods, resulting in a normal diffusion described bya continuous time random walk with a coefficient of diffusion $D$.Surprisingly, $D$ is found to decrease with time down to a plateau. This isobserved only when the cyanobacterial cells are able to produce releasedextracellular polysaccharides, as shown by a comparative study between thewild-type strain and various polysaccharides-depleted mutants. The analysis ofthe trajectories taken by the bacterial cells shows that the temporalcharacteristics of their intermittent motion depend on the instantaneousfraction of visited sites during diffusion. This describes quantitatively thetime dependence of $D$, related to the progressive surface coverage by thepolysaccharides. The observed slowdown of the surface diffusion may constitutea basic precursor mechanism for microcolony formation and provides clues forcontrolling biofilm formation.

Slowdown of the surface diffusion during early stages of bacterial colonization