| ELECTROMAGNETISM, OPTICS, ACOUSTICS, HEAT TRANSFER, CLASSICAL MECHANICS, AND FLUID DYNAMICS |
Prev
Next
|
|
|
Drift capability of swimming bacteria in shear flows |
| Fanglong Dang(党方龙)1, Wei Feng(冯伟)1, Xinlei Li(李欣蕾)2, Luo Hao(罗昊)1, Yanan Liu(刘亚楠)1, and Guangyin Jing(经光银)1,† |
1 School of Physics, Northwest University, Xi'an 7100127, China;
2 College of Life Science, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China |
|
|
|
|
Abstract The ability of microorganisms to control their swimming direction is crucial for navigating complex flow environments at low Reynolds numbers. We study how swimming Escherichia coli generate transverse locomotion across streamlines, defined as drift swimming, i.e., perpendicular to the flow direction, resulting from the chiral coupling between their flagellar rotation and an imposed shear flow. The drift velocity increases linearly with shear rate at low shear and saturates at a maximum value comparable to the intrinsic swimming speed. This maximum drift grows monotonically as cells approach the channel wall and is strongly enhanced under geometric confinement. Reorientation dynamics reveal a marginally stable fixed point along the vorticity axis, with oscillations around it arising from thermal noise and body–flagellum misalignment. Wall-induced hydrodynamic constraints suppress these fluctuations and amplify the drift. Our results demonstrate an enhanced navigation capacity under extreme shear relevant to bacterial colonization in confined environments.
|
Received: 11 December 2025
Revised: 20 January 2026
Accepted manuscript online: 03 February 2026
|
|
PACS:
|
47.63.Gd
|
(Swimming microorganisms)
|
| |
47.63.-b
|
(Biological fluid dynamics)
|
| |
47.61.-k
|
(Micro- and nano- scale flow phenomena)
|
| |
47.90.+a
|
(Other topics in fluid dynamics)
|
|
| Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12174306, 12004308, W2421001, and 12474197), the Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (Grant Nos. 2023-JC-JQ-02 and 2024JCZDXM-06), the Shaanxi Academy of Fundamental Sciences (Mathematics, Physics No. 23JSY024), and Shaanxi Province Science and Technology Rising Star Program (Grant No. 2025ZC-KJXX-51). |
Corresponding Authors:
Guangyin Jing
E-mail: jing@nwu.edu.cn
|
Cite this article:
Fanglong Dang(党方龙), Wei Feng(冯伟), Xinlei Li(李欣蕾), Luo Hao(罗昊), Yanan Liu(刘亚楠), and Guangyin Jing(经光银) Drift capability of swimming bacteria in shear flows 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 074701
|
[1] Holscher T, Bartels B, Lin Y C, Gallegos-Monterrosa R, Price-Whelan A, Kolter R, Dietrich L E P and Kovacs A T 2015 J. Mol. Biol. 427 3695
[2] Watteaux R, Stocker R and Taylor J R 2015 J. Theor. Biol. 387 120
[3] Toews M L, Goy M F, Springer M S and Adler J 1979 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76 5544
[4] Berg H C 1975 Annu. Rev. Biophys. Bioeng. 4 119
[5] Chamolly A and Lauga E 2020 Phys. Rev. Fluids 5 123102
[6] Berg H C and Brown D A 1972 Nature 239 500
[7] Dvoriashyna M and Lauga E 2021 PLoS One 16 e0254551
[8] Zottl A and Yeomans J M 2019 Nat. Phys. 15 554
[9] Qu Z and Breuer K S 2020 Phys. Rev. Fluids 5 073103
[10] Patteson A E, Gopinath A, Goulian M and Arratia P E 2015 Sci. Rep. 5 15761
[11] Kamdar S, Shin S, Leishangthem P, Francis L F, Xu X and Cheng X 2022 Nature 603 819
[12] Cao X, Das D, Windbacher N, Ginot F, Kruger M and Bechinger C 2023 Nat. Phys. 19 1904
[13] Lauga E, DiLuzio W R, Whitesides G M and Stone H A 2006 Biophys. J. 90 400
[14] Giacche D, Ishikawa T and Yamaguchi T 2010 Phys. Rev. E 82 056309
[15] Lopez D and Lauga E 2014 Phys. Fluids 26 071902
[16] Berke A P, Turner L, Berg H C and Lauga E 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 038102
[17] Li G and Tang J X 2009 Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 078101
[18] Sartori P, Chiarello E, Jayaswal G, Pierno M, Mistura G, Brun P, Tiribocchi A and Orlandini E 2018 Phys. Rev. E 97 022610
[19] Li G, Bensson J, Nisimova L, Munger D, Mahautmr P, Tang J X, Maxey M R and Brun Y V 2011 Phys. Rev. E 84 041932
[20] Xu X X, Tian Y, Pu Y, Che B, Luo H, Liu Y, Liu Y J and Jing G 2025 J. Phys. Chem. B 129 2647
[21] Rusconi R, Guasto J S and Stocker R 2014 Nat. Phys. 10 212
[22] Tung C K, Ardon F, Roy A, Koch D L, Suarez S S and Wu M 2015 Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 108102
[23] Mathijssen A J T M, Figueroa-Morales N, Junot G, Clement E, Lindner A and Zottl A 2019 Nat. Commun. 10 3434
[24] Nash R W, Adhikari R, Tailleur J and Cates M E 2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 258101
[25] Mathijssen A J T M, Shendruk T N, Yeomans J M and Doostmohammadi A 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 028104
[26] Figueroa-Morales N, Rivera A, Soto R, Lindner A, Altshuler E and Clement E 2020 Sci. Adv. 6 eaay0155
[27] Hill J, Kalkanci O, McMurry J L and Koser H 2007 Phys. Rev. Lett. 98 068101
[28] Figueroa-Morales N, Mino G L, Rivera A, Caballero R, Cl ement E, Altshuler E and Lindner A 2015 Soft Matter 11 6284
[29] Zottl A 2020 Chin. Phys. B 29 074701
[30] Kaya T and Koser H 2009 Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 138103
[31] Li R, Gompper G and Ripoll M 2021 Macromolecules 54 812
[32] Rost B, Stimatze J T, Egolf D A and Urbach J S 2020 Phys. Rev. E 102 023103
[33] Makino M, Arai L and Doi M 2005 Phys. Fluids 17 103605
[34] Marcos, Fu H C, Powers T R and Stocker R 2009 Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 158103
[35] Makino M, Arai L and Doi M 2008 J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 77 064404
[36] Jing G, Zottl A, Cl ement E and Lindner A 2020 Sci. Adv. 6 eabb2012
[37] Zhong J and Xu X 2025 Phys. Fluids 37 021707
[38] Zottl A, Tesser F, Matsunaga D, Laurent J, Du Roure O and Lindner A 2023 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 120 e2310939120
[39] Ping L, Wasnik V and Emberly E 2014 FEMS Microbiol. Ecol. 91 1
[40] Yin Y, Yu H T, Tan H, Cai H, Chen H Y, Lo C J and Guo S 2022 Biophys. J. 121 4656
[41] Vizsnyiczai G, Frangipane G, Bianchi S, Saglimbeni F, Dell’Arciprete D and Di Leonardo R 2020 Nat. Commun. 11 2340
[42] Yan N, Xie C, Luo H, Liu Y and Jing G 2023 Chin. Phys. B 32 114704
[43] Niu Y, Zhang R and Yuan J 2023 Sci. Adv. 9 eadi6724
[44] Drescher K, Dunkel J, Cisneros L H, Ganguly S and Goldstein R E 2011 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108 10940
[45] Bretherton F P and Rothschild N M V 1961 Proc. R. Soc. B 153 490
[46] Junot G, Figueroa-Morales N, Darnige T, Lindner A, Soto R, Auradou H and Clement E 2019 Europhys. Lett. 126 44003
[47] Ezhilan B and Saintillan D 2015 J. Fluid Mech. 777 482
[48] Zottl A and Stark H 2013 Eur. Phys. J. E 36 4
[49] Padding J T and Briels W J 2010 J. Chem. Phys. 132 054511
[50] Yang Y and Bevan M A 2017 J. Chem. Phys. 147 054902
[51] Neild A, Padding J T, Yu L, Bhaduri B, Briels W J and Ng T W 2010 Phys. Rev. E 82 041126
[52] Marcos, Fu H C, Powers T R and Stocker R 2012 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109 4780
[53] Cheon J, Son J, Lim S, Jeong Y, Park J H, Mitchell R J, Kim J U and Jeong J 2024 Soft Matter 20 7313 |
| No Suggested Reading articles found! |
|
|
Viewed |
|
|
|
Full text
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
|
Cited |
|
|
|
|
Altmetric
|
|
blogs
Facebook pages
Wikipedia page
Google+ users
|
Online attention
Altmetric calculates a score based on the online attention an article receives. Each coloured thread in the circle represents a different type of online attention. The number in the centre is the Altmetric score. Social media and mainstream news media are the main sources that calculate the score. Reference managers such as Mendeley are also tracked but do not contribute to the score. Older articles often score higher because they have had more time to get noticed. To account for this, Altmetric has included the context data for other articles of a similar age.
View more on Altmetrics
|
|
|
