Hydrodynamic Attraction of Swimming Microorganisms by Surfaces

Berke, Allison P.; Turner, Linda; Berg, Howard C.; Lauga, Eric

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.038102

Cited by 776 publications

(922 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…It has been known for many years that swimming cells accumulate near surfaces. One of the prominent early observations was that of Rothschild (1963) who found this in the case of sperm cells, and more recent work on bacteria discovered a similar phenomenon (Berke et al 2008) and attributed the effect to long-range hydrodynamic interactions between the swimmers (viewed as pusher stresslets) and the no-slip wall. An opposing point of view advocated by Li & Tang (2009), but actually first mentioned by Rothschild (1963), is that the accumulation is associated with what has come to be called 'inelastic scattering' of cells by surfaces.…”

Section: Surface Interactions Of Microswimmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Batchelor Prize Lecture Fluid dynamics at the scale of the cell

Goldstein

2016

J. Fluid Mech.

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The world of cellular biology provides us with many fascinating fluid dynamical phenomena that lie at the heart of physiology, development, evolution and ecology. Advances in imaging, micromanipulation and microfluidics over the past decade have made possible high-precision measurements of such flows, providing tests of microhydrodynamic theories and revealing a wealth of new phenomena calling out for explanation. Here I summarize progress in four areas within the field of 'active matter': cytoplasmic streaming in plant cells, synchronization of eukaryotic flagella, interactions between swimming cells and surfaces and collective behaviour in suspensions of microswimmers. Throughout, I emphasize open problems in which fluid dynamical methods are key ingredients in an interdisciplinary approach to the mysteries of life.

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Section: Surface Interactions Of Microswimmersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Batchelor Prize Lecture Fluid dynamics at the scale of the cell

Goldstein

2016

J. Fluid Mech.

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“…However, any long-time-scale simulations have invariably had to terminate as the swimmer approached and descended into the boundary (as reported by Ramia et al 1993, for example). Apart from curving the trajectory, the boundary also seems to attract the swimmer (Berke et al 2008). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling bacterial behaviour close to a no-slip plane boundary: the influence of bacterial geometry

2010

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We describe a boundary-element method used to model the hydrodynamics of a bacterium propelled by a single helical flagellum. Using this model, we optimize the power efficiency of swimming with respect to cell body and flagellum geometrical parameters, and find that optima for swimming in unbounded fluid and near a no-slip plane boundary are nearly indistinguishable. We also consider the novel optimization objective of torque efficiency and find a very different optimal shape. Excluding effects such as Brownian motion and electrostatic interactions, it is demonstrated that hydrodynamic forces may trap the bacterium in a stable, circular orbit near the boundary, leading to the empirically observable surface accumulation of bacteria. Furthermore, the details and even the existence of this stable orbit depend on geometrical parameters of the bacterium, as described in this article. These results shed some light on the phenomenon of surface accumulation of micro-organisms and offer hydrodynamic explanations as to why some bacteria may accumulate more readily than others based on morphology.

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“…For suspensions in a bounded domain, the swimming cells accumulate near the surface, as observed for bacteria (Li et al 2011) and up-swimming, bottom-heavy algae (Pedley & Kessler 1992), two different cellular organisms with opposite swimming modes, one 'pushing' the other 'pulling'. Several experimental and theoretical studies of swimming particle interactions with surfaces show that the particle interaction with the wall can vary with particle size, swimming type and particle shape and the long time trajectory of a swimming particle moving near a surface is not easily predicted (Li et al 2011;Berke et al 2008;Spagnolie & Lauga 2012;Zhu, Lauga & Brandt 2013). While most of these studies were conducted for solid walls, the motion toward a stress free surface, such as an air and water interface, show some similarities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Petri dishes, droplets, thin soap films, or films in glass slides (Berke et al 2008). In confined environments the swimming particle volume fraction φ can range from the semidilute to dense suspensions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Active suspensions in thin films: nutrient uptake and swimmer motion

et al. 2013

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A numerical study of swimming particle motion and nutrient transport is conducted for a semidilute to dense suspension in a thin film. The steady squirmer model is used to represent the motion of living cells in suspension with the nutrient uptake by swimming particles modelled using a first-order kinetic equation representing the absorption process that occurs locally at the particle surface. An analysis of the dynamics of the neutral squirmers inside the film shows that the vertical motion is reduced significantly. The mean nutrient uptake for both isolated and populations of swimmers decreases for increasing swimming speeds when nutrient advection becomes relevant as less time is left for the nutrient to diffuse to the surface. This finding is in contrast to the case where the uptake is modelled by imposing a constant nutrient concentration at the cell surface and the mass flux results to be an increasing monotonic function of the swimming speed. In comparison to non-motile particles, the cell motion has a negligible influence on nutrient uptake at lower particle absorption rates since the process is rate limited. At higher absorption rates, the swimming motion results in a large increase in the nutrient uptake that is attributed to the movement of particles and increased mixing in the fluid. As the volume fraction of swimming particles increases, the squirmers consume slightly less nutrients and require more power for the same swimming motion. Despite this increase in energy consumption, the results clearly demonstrate that the gain in nutrient uptake make swimming a winning strategy for micro-organism survival also in relatively dense suspensions.

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Hydrodynamic Attraction of Swimming Microorganisms by Surfaces

Cited by 776 publications

References 29 publications

Batchelor Prize Lecture Fluid dynamics at the scale of the cell

Batchelor Prize Lecture Fluid dynamics at the scale of the cell

Modelling bacterial behaviour close to a no-slip plane boundary: the influence of bacterial geometry

Active suspensions in thin films: nutrient uptake and swimmer motion

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