Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 35, Pages 14861-14866Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0907542106
Keywords
biophysics; confinement; microbiology; microfluidics
Categories
Funding
- Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM)
- de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Watenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
- Delft University of Technology Start-up Fund
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In many naturally occurring habitats, bacteria live in micrometersize confined spaces. Although bacterial growth and motility in such constrictions is of great interest to fields as varied as soil microbiology, water purification, and biomedical research, quantitative studies of the effects of confinement on bacteria have been limited. Here, we establish how Gram-negative Escherichia coli and Gram-positive Bacillus subtilis bacteria can grow, move, and penetrate very narrow constrictions with a size comparable to or even smaller than their diameter. We show that peritrichously flagellated E. coli and B. subtilis are still motile in microfabricated channels where the width of the channel exceeds their diameters only marginally (similar to 30%). For smaller widths, the motility vanishes but bacteria can still pass through these channels by growth and division. We observe E. coli, but not B. subtilis, to penetrate channels with a width that is smaller than their diameter by a factor of approximately 2. Within these channels, bacteria are considerably squeezed but they still grow and divide. After exiting the channels, E. coli bacteria obtain a variety of anomalous cell shapes. Our results reveal that sub-micron size pores and cavities are unexpectedly prolific bacterial habitats where bacteria exhibit morphological adaptations.
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