Nature Communications 2014-01-01

Bacteria slingshot more on soft surfaces.

Rongrong Zhang, Lei Ni, Zhenyu Jin, Jiahong Li, Fan Jin

Index: Nat. Commun. 5 , 5541, (2014)

Full Text: HTML

Abstract

Adaptive responses greatly improve the competitive capacities of bacteria in diverse environments. Here, we investigate whether bacteria can adapt to a microenvironment with distinctive softness by examining the type-IV pili (TFP)-mediated motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells on brush-like surfaces that are grafted with a layer of thermally sensitive polymer chains, where the softness of the brush-layer is tunable by applying a small temperature change (from 30 to 37 °C). We report that P. aeruginosa cells slingshot more on soft surfaces at a shear-thinning condition, which greatly facilitates their surface crawling by means of reducing energy dissipation. This adaptive response suggests that P. aeruginosa cells may be able to sense the local viscoelasticity and then deploy TFP to adapt to their physical surroundings.

Related Compounds

  • Acetone
  • Ethanol
  • Trimethoxysilane

Related Articles:

Aptamer-based polyvalent ligands for regulated cell attachment on the hydrogel surface.

2015-04-13

[Biomacromolecules 16(4) , 1382-9, (2015)]

Polymerization of affinity ligands on a surface for enhanced ligand display and cell binding.

2014-12-08

[Biomacromolecules 15(12) , 4561-9, (2014)]

Synergistic activity of tenofovir and nevirapine combinations released from polycaprolactone matrices for potential enhanced prevention of HIV infection through the vaginal route.

2014-10-01

[Eur. J. Pharm. Biopharm. 88(2) , 406-14, (2014)]

Use of an enzyme-assisted method to improve protein extraction from olive leaves.

2015-02-15

[Food Chem. 169 , 28-33, (2014)]

Molecular insights into shellac film coats from different aqueous shellac salt solutions and effect on disintegration of enteric-coated soft gelatin capsules.

2015-04-30

[Int. J. Pharm. 484(1-2) , 283-91, (2015)]

More Articles...