Daniel Svenšek (Author), Harald Pleiner (Author), Helmut R. Brand (Author)

Abstract

It is known that some flagellated bacteria like Serratia marcescens, when deposited and affixed onto a surface to form a “bacterial carpet”, self-organize in a collective motion of the flagella that is capable of pumping fluid through microfluidic channels. We set up a continuum model comprising two macroscopic variables that is capable of describing this self-organization mechanism as well as quantifying it to the extent that an agreement with the experimentally observed channel width dependence of the pumping is reached. The activity is introduced through a collective angular velocity of the helical flagella rotation, which is an example of a dynamic macroscopic preferred direction. Our model supports and quantifies the view that the self-coordination is due to a positive feedback loop between the bacterial flagella and the local flow generated by their rotation. Moreover, our results indicate that this biological active system is operating close to the self-organization threshold.

Keywords

dinamika tekočin;mikrofluidika;bakterije;fluid dynamics;microfluidics;bacteria;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization: UL FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
UDC: 532.5
COBISS: 3289188 Link will open in a new window
ISSN: 1744-683X
Views: 652
Downloads: 271
Average score: 0 (0 votes)
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Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary keywords: dinamika tekočin;mikrofluidika;bakterije;
Embargo end date (OpenAIRE): 2020-01-23
Pages: str. 2032-2042
Volume: ǂVol. ǂ15
Issue: ǂiss. ǂ9
Chronology: 2019
DOI: 10.1039/C9SM00023B
ID: 11037297