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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Crowding limits relative bacterial surface accumulation with density-induced effective heating

  • Yaocai Liu1
  • Rui He1
  • Da Wei2
  • Longfei Li2
  • Mingcheng Yang2,3
  • Junhua Yuan1
  • Yi Peng2,3
  1. 1Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China
  2. 2Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  3. 3School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
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Abstract

The accumulation of microswimmers near walls has been studied for decades. While hydrodynamics and single-cell kinematics are well-explored, the role of cell-cell interactions remains understudied. However, in realistic, crowded environments such as the human gut, these interactions can be just as crucial. Here, we demonstrate that they actively weaken bacterial surface accumulation. Analysis of entrapped cell tracks reveals that crowding enhances orientational fluctuations, which increase the effective rotational diffusion and facilitate wall escape. A minimal model shows that this collective effect is equivalent to raising the system’s effective temperature with density.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{liu2026crowding,
  title = {{Crowding limits relative bacterial surface accumulation with density-induced effective heating}},
  author = {Yaocai Liu and Rui He and Da Wei and Longfei Li and Mingcheng Yang and Junhua Yuan and Yi Peng},
  journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1073/pnas.2536051123},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2536051123},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Crowding limits relative bacterial surface accumulation with density-induced effective heating
AU  - Yaocai Liu
AU  - Rui He
AU  - Da Wei
AU  - Longfei Li
AU  - Mingcheng Yang
AU  - Junhua Yuan
AU  - Yi Peng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/29
JO  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
DO  - 10.1073/pnas.2536051123
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2536051123
AB  - The accumulation of microswimmers near walls has been studied for decades. While hydrodynamics and single-cell kinematics are well-explored, the role of cell-cell interactions remains understudied. However, in realistic, crowded environments such as the human gut, these interactions can be just as crucial. Here, we demonstrate that they actively weaken bacterial surface accumulation. Analysis of entrapped cell tracks reveals that crowding enhances orientational fluctuations, which increase the effective rotational diffusion and facilitate wall escape. A minimal model shows that this collective effect is equivalent to raising the system’s effective temperature with density.
SN  - 0027-8424
SN  - 1091-6490
ER  -