TY - JOUR
T1 - Bacterial swimming and oxygen transport near contact lines
AU - Tuval, Idan
AU - Cisneros, Luis
AU - Dombrowski, Christopher
AU - Wolgemuth, Charles W.
AU - Kessler, John O.
AU - Goldstein, Raymond E.
PY - 2005/2/15
Y1 - 2005/2/15
N2 - Aerobic bacteria often live in thin fluid layers near solid-air-water contact lines, in which the biology of chemotaxis, metabolism, and cell-cell signaling is intimately connected to the physics of buoyancy, diffusion, and mixing. Using the geometry of a sessile drop, we demonstrate in suspensions of Bacillus subtilis the self-organized generation of a persistent hydrodynamic vortex that traps cells near the contact line. Arising from upward oxygentaxis and downward gravitational forcing, these dynamics are related to the Boycott effect in sedimentation and are explained quantitatively by a mathematical model consisting of oxygen diffusion and consumption, chemotaxis, and viscous fluid dynamics. The vortex is shown to advectively enhance uptake of oxygen into the suspension, and the wedge geometry leads to a singularity in the chemotactic dynamics near the contact line.
AB - Aerobic bacteria often live in thin fluid layers near solid-air-water contact lines, in which the biology of chemotaxis, metabolism, and cell-cell signaling is intimately connected to the physics of buoyancy, diffusion, and mixing. Using the geometry of a sessile drop, we demonstrate in suspensions of Bacillus subtilis the self-organized generation of a persistent hydrodynamic vortex that traps cells near the contact line. Arising from upward oxygentaxis and downward gravitational forcing, these dynamics are related to the Boycott effect in sedimentation and are explained quantitatively by a mathematical model consisting of oxygen diffusion and consumption, chemotaxis, and viscous fluid dynamics. The vortex is shown to advectively enhance uptake of oxygen into the suspension, and the wedge geometry leads to a singularity in the chemotactic dynamics near the contact line.
KW - Bacillus subtilis
KW - Bioconvection
KW - Chemotaxis
KW - Singularity
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.0406724102
DO - 10.1073/pnas.0406724102
M3 - Article
C2 - 15699341
AN - SCOPUS:14044273096
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 102
SP - 2277
EP - 2282
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 7
ER -