Motion Anisotropy of Individual, Unconfined Rod-Like-Shaped Salmonella Typhimurium Bacteria.
6 affiliations
- 1Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 22, Berlin 14195, Germany.
- 2Research Building SupraFAB, Freie Universität Berlin, Altensteinstr. 23a, Berlin 14195, Germany.
- 3Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics, School of Veterinary Medicine, Freie Universität Berlin, Robert-von-Ostertag-Straße 7-13, Berlin 14163, Germany.
- 4Institute of Microbiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bemeroder Straße 31, Hannover 30559, Germany.
- 5Institute of Theoretical Bio- and Soft Matter Physics, Department of Physics, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14, Berlin 14195, Germany.
- 6Veterinary Center for Resistance Research (TZR), Freie Universität Berlin, Robert-von-Ostertag-Straße 8, Berlin 14163, Germany.
Abstract
With the continuous advancement of microscopic imaging techniques, the motion of micro- and nanosized particles can be followed with increasing spatial and temporal accuracy. Analyzing the tracks of single particles enables one to address a broad range of scientific questions, e.g., the dynamics of active and passive (thermally driven) motion or the transport of particles in complex environments. While anisotropic motion, which is exhibited by the vast majority of biologically relevant particles (e.g., bacteria and viruses), has been amply studied in theoretical works, only little experimental data with single-particle resolution have been reported so far. In this study, fluorescence microscopy is used to follow the unconstrained motion of green-fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in bulk. By decomposing the motion of individual bacteria into contributions parallel and perpendicular to the bacterial long axis, we introduce new scores that quantify the degree of motile activity and alignment with high throughput. We find that S. Typhimurium possesses a surprisingly broad spectrum of opening angles that range from full alignment of the bacterial long axis with the direction of translational motion to no alignment at all. Applied to mutants, in which motility-related proteins (the flagellins FljB and FliC) have been deleted, we find that wild-type (WT) and FliC-expressing S. Typhimurium exhibit very similar motility but differ significantly in the fraction of actively moving bacteria.
Related
- Energy-Stable Parametric Operator Inference across Regime Transitions: Application to Unconfined Buoyant Plumes in Stratified Ambients
- Stress anisotropy in axisymmetric 3D active curved structures
- Membrane anisotropy reshapes scale-free correlations and directional mechanical susceptibility in transmembrane proteins
- Surfactant-Induced Interfacial Anisotropy Governs Polarization-Selective Whispering Gallery Mode Excitation in Dye-Doped Trapped Microdroplets
- A 3D-ΔPDF-like measure for hidden anisotropy in disordered materials
BibTeX
@article{diestelhorst2026motion,
title = {{Motion Anisotropy of Individual, Unconfined Rod-Like-Shaped Salmonella Typhimurium Bacteria.}},
author = {Kevin Diestelhorst and Fereshteh Ghazisaeedi and Anton Klimek and Sebastian Braetz and Karsten Tedin and Roland R Netz and Marcus Fulde and Stephan Block},
journal = {ACS nanoscience Au},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.6c00080},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921437},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Motion Anisotropy of Individual, Unconfined Rod-Like-Shaped Salmonella Typhimurium Bacteria.
AU - Kevin Diestelhorst
AU - Fereshteh Ghazisaeedi
AU - Anton Klimek
AU - Sebastian Braetz
AU - Karsten Tedin
AU - Roland R Netz
AU - Marcus Fulde
AU - Stephan Block
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/06
JO - ACS nanoscience Au
DO - 10.1021/acsnanoscienceau.6c00080
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42921437
AB - With the continuous advancement of microscopic imaging techniques, the motion of micro- and nanosized particles can be followed with increasing spatial and temporal accuracy. Analyzing the tracks of single particles enables one to address a broad range of scientific questions, e.g., the dynamics of active and passive (thermally driven) motion or the transport of particles in complex environments. While anisotropic motion, which is exhibited by the vast majority of biologically relevant particles (e.g., bacteria and viruses), has been amply studied in theoretical works, only little experimental data with single-particle resolution have been reported so far. In this study, fluorescence microscopy is used to follow the unconstrained motion of green-fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) in bulk. By decomposing the motion of individual bacteria into contributions parallel and perpendicular to the bacterial long axis, we introduce new scores that quantify the degree of motile activity and alignment with high throughput. We find that S. Typhimurium possesses a surprisingly broad spectrum of opening angles that range from full alignment of the bacterial long axis with the direction of translational motion to no alignment at all. Applied to mutants, in which motility-related proteins (the flagellins FljB and FliC) have been deleted, we find that wild-type (WT) and FliC-expressing S. Typhimurium exhibit very similar motility but differ significantly in the fraction of actively moving bacteria.
SN - 2694-2496
ER -