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PHYMOT - Physics of Microbial Motility

Research Project
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01.02.2021
 - 31.01.2025

Suspensions of swimming bacteria display collective motion when the density of bacteria increases. These collective movements take the form of large groups of cells that transiently move in the same direction, which break up into swirls, forming intermittent vortex-like structures. The cell-cell interaction mechanisms that underlie the emergence of bacterial collective motion in two- and three-dimensional suspensions are unclear. Using genetics, we will modify bacterial cells such that physical parameters of bacterial motility and bacterial cell surface-adhesiveness are altered, e.g. by changing the cellular aspect ratio, flagella length, flagellar rotation speed, and surface adhesion expression. These genetic modifications will alter key cellular properties that are predicted by theoretical models to change the bacterial cell-cell scattering interactions. These mutants will provide a basis for experimentally dissecting the contributions of different cellular properties to bacterial collective movement.

Funding

PHYMOT - Physics of Microbial Motility

Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie (GrantsTool), 02.2021-01.2025 (48)
PI : Drescher, Knut.

Members (1)

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Knut Drescher

Principal Investigator