Bacterial migration along solid surfaces

Abstract

An in vitro system was developed to study the migration of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains. In this system an aqueous agar gel is placed against a solid surface, allowing the bacteria to migrate along the gel/solid surface interface. Bacterial strains as well as solid surfaces were characterized by means of water contact angle and zeta potential measurements. When glass was used as the solid surface, significantly different migration times for the strains investigated were observed. Relationships among the observed migration times of six strains, their contact angles, and their zeta potentials were found. Relatively hydrophobic strains exhibited migration times shorter than those of hydrophilic strains. For highly negatively charged strains shorter migration times were found than were found for less negatively charged strains. When the fastest-migrating strain with respect to glass was allowed to migrate along solid surfaces differing in hydrophobicity and charge, no differences in migration times were found. Our findings indicate that strategies to prevent catheterassociated bacteriuria should be based on inhibition of bacterial growth rather than on modifying the physicochemical character of the catheter surface. * Corresponding author. water contact angle, whereas the surface charge was determined by measuring the zeta potential, which is a measure of the surface charge.

Adhesive interactions between medically important yeasts and bacteria

“…Yeast and bacterial cell surfaces have been examined using physico‐chemical techniques to further understand the mechanism of adhesive interactions with their environment. To date, bacteria have been much more extensively characterized than yeasts, and bacterial contact angles, surface free energies, cell surface hydrophobicities and zeta potentials are known for a wide variety of Gram‐positive streptococci [73, 74], staphylococci [75, 76], and lactobacilli [77, 78], but also for Gram‐negative bacteria such as E. coli [79–81].…”

Geometric capture and escape of a microswimmer colliding with an obstacle

“…(b) The curve collapses upon plotting against α 2 A to a power law scaling with exponent 1/5. The solid line is the prediction from Eq (20)…”

Unidirectional motility of Escherichia coli in restrictive capillaries

“…This migration behavior differs significantly from that in unrestricted bulk. Recently, a number of studies have addressed bacterial motility on or close to solid surfaces (8,14) and through restrictive passages. Using light scattering, Berg and Turner (6) studied motility and chemotaxis of bacterial populations in an array of fineglass capillaries.…”