The swimming pattern of bacteria with single polar flagella has usually been described as "run and reverse". We observed the swimming traces of monotrichously flagellated Vibrio alginolyticus cells and examined the relationship between the swimming pattern and the sense of progress. Swimming in regions other than a solid surface was confirmed to be linear run and reverse. Near a solid surface, the traces consisted of "run and arc"; the cells were found to curve sharply during backward swimming, while they progressed linearly during forward swimming. The "run and arc" swimming pattern may play an important role in the chemotaxis strategy of marine bacteria at solid surfaces.

No abstract

In the present investigation, we constructed formulation to analyze the deformation of flagellar filament combining the evolution equations for space curves with the Kirchhoff rod model as well as the detailed structure of the filament of Salmonella. In the analytical results of the present study, experimental results of the large elongation of close-coiled filament (Hoshikawa and Kamiya, 1985) and the small deformation of normal filament rotating in water (Kudo et al.) are reproduced. Comparing the results of deformation of flagellar filament between the analyses and the experiments, the torsional and the flexural rigidity of the flagellar filament are estimated to be GJ = 4.6 pNµm 2 and EI = 6.1 pNµm 2 .

No abstract

No abstract