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Random motility of swimming bacteria in restricted geometries
Author(s) -
Biondi Sherri A.,
Quinn John A.,
Goldfine Howard
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690440822
Subject(s) - motility , curse of dimensionality , constant (computer programming) , population , mechanics , channel (broadcasting) , measure (data warehouse) , biological system , physics , biophysics , mathematics , statistics , biology , engineering , computer science , microbiology and biotechnology , demography , database , sociology , electrical engineering , programming language
Abstract The effects of restricted geometries on the swimming behavior of Escherichia coli were examined. Videomicroscopy and image analysis techniques were used to measure single‐cell motility parameters (cell velocity, tumbling probability, and turn angle) in microfabricated 2‐D channels ranging from 2 to 20 μm in height. Macroscopic motility coefficients were calculated from the single‐cell data and compared to literature values. These observations indicate that single‐cell parameters remain nearly constant in confined spaces in which channel heights approach the size of the bacterium. The nearly constant swimming behavior of individual cells in confined geometries indicates that the macroscopic motility coefficient describing population behavior will be greater than the unrestricted value by a factor proportional to the dimensionality of the system.