Bacteria use sugar-fueled currents and molecular gearboxes to move without flagella

 


Movement lets bacteria form communities, spread to new places or escape from danger. Understanding how they do it can help us develop new tools to fight against infections.

In the first study, Navish Wadhwa and colleagues show that salmonella and E. coli can move across moist surfaces even when their flagella are disabled. As part of their metabolism, the bacteria ferment sugars and set up tiny outward currents on the moist surface. These currents carry the colony forward, like leaves drifting on a thin stream of water.

The researchers call this new form of movement "swashing." It may help explain how harmful microbes successfully colonize , wounds or food-processing surfaces. Understanding how metabolism drives bacterial movement could help researchers develop new techniques to limit infections, for example by changing local pH or sugar availability.

"We were amazed by the ability of these bacteria to migrate across surfaces without functional flagella. In fact, our collaborators originally designed this experiment as a 'negative control,' meaning that we expected (once rendered) flagella-less, the cells to not move," Wadhwa says. "But the bacteria migrated with abandon, as if nothing were amiss, setting us off on a multiyear quest to understand how they were doing it.

"It just goes to show that even when we think we've got something figured out, there are often surprises waiting just under the surface, or in this case, above it."

Wadhwa is a researcher with the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution and assistant professor with the Department of Physics at ASU.

The study appears in the Journal of Bacteriology. The paper has been selected by the journal as an Editor's Pick, highlighting the importance of the research.


Event Name : International Molecular Biologist Awards

Website Link: molecularbiologist.org

Contact Mail ID : support@molecularbiologist.org

Nomination Link  : https://molecularbiologist.org/award-nomination/?ecategory=Awards&rcategory=Awardee


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#Bacteria #Microbiology #Bioengineering #CellMotility #MolecularBiology #Biophysics #GlidingMotility #SugarMetabolism #IonCurrents #MolecularGearbox #CellMovement #MicrobialMechanisms

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