TY - JOUR
T1 - The Screw-Like Movement of a Gliding Bacterium Is Powered by Spiral Motion of Cell-Surface Adhesins
AU - Shrivastava, Abhishek
AU - Roland, Thibault
AU - Berg, Howard C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by National Institutes of Health grant AI016478.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Biophysical Society
PY - 2016/9/6
Y1 - 2016/9/6
N2 - Flavobacterium johnsoniae, a rod-shaped bacterium, glides over surfaces at speeds of ∼2 μm/s. The propulsion of a cell-surface adhesin, SprB, is known to enable gliding. We used cephalexin to generate elongated cells with irregular shapes and followed their displacement in three dimensions. These cells rolled about their long axes as they moved forward, following a right-handed trajectory. We coated gold nanoparticles with an SprB antibody and tracked them in three dimensions in an evanescent field where the nanoparticles appeared brighter when they were closer to the glass. The nanoparticles followed a right-handed spiral trajectory on the surface of the cell. Thus, if SprB were to adhere to the glass rather than to a nanoparticle, the cell would move forward along a right-handed trajectory, as observed, but in a direction opposite to that of the nanoparticle.
AB - Flavobacterium johnsoniae, a rod-shaped bacterium, glides over surfaces at speeds of ∼2 μm/s. The propulsion of a cell-surface adhesin, SprB, is known to enable gliding. We used cephalexin to generate elongated cells with irregular shapes and followed their displacement in three dimensions. These cells rolled about their long axes as they moved forward, following a right-handed trajectory. We coated gold nanoparticles with an SprB antibody and tracked them in three dimensions in an evanescent field where the nanoparticles appeared brighter when they were closer to the glass. The nanoparticles followed a right-handed spiral trajectory on the surface of the cell. Thus, if SprB were to adhere to the glass rather than to a nanoparticle, the cell would move forward along a right-handed trajectory, as observed, but in a direction opposite to that of the nanoparticle.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.bpj.2016.07.043
DO - 10.1016/j.bpj.2016.07.043
M3 - Article
C2 - 27602728
AN - SCOPUS:84995598155
SN - 0006-3495
VL - 111
SP - 1008
EP - 1013
JO - Biophysical Journal
JF - Biophysical Journal
IS - 5
ER -