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Bacteria predate plants and animals by billions of years. Today, they are the world's smallest cells, yet they represent the bulk of the world's biomass and the main reservoir of nutrients for higher organisms. Most bacteria can move on their own, and the majority of motile bacteria are able to swim in viscous fluids using slender helical appendages called flagella. Low–Reynolds number hydrodynamics is at the heart of the ability of flagella to generate propulsion at the micrometer scale. In fact, fluid dynamic forces impact many aspects of bacteriology, ranging from the ability of cells to reorient and search their surroundings to their interactions within mechanically and chemically complex environments. Using hydrodynamics as an organizing framework, I review the biomechanics of bacterial motility and look ahead to future challenges.
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Supplemental Video 1: Swimming Escherichia coli bacteria with fluorescently labeled flagellar filaments, showing fluorescent bundles of flagellar filaments rotating and propelling individual cells forward. The details of the experimental procedure are given in Turner L, Ryu WS, Berg HC. 2000. Real-time imaging of fluorescent flagellar filaments. J. Bacteriol. 182:2793–801. The video is reproduced with permission from Howard Berg’s website at the Rowland Insitute, Harvard University (http://www.rowland.harvard.edu/labs/bacteria/movies/ecoli.php).
Supplemental Video 2: Swimming Escherichia coli bacteria with fluorescently-labeled flagellar filaments, showing individual run-and-tumble events with flagellar filaments unbundling, cells turning, and flagellar filaments rejoining the bundle. The details of the experimental procedure are given in Turner L, Ryu WS, Berg HC. 2000. Real-time imaging of fluorescent flagellar filaments. J. Bacteriol. 182:2793–801. The video is reproduced with permission from Howard Berg’s website at the Rowland Insitute, Harvard University (http://www.rowland.harvard.edu/labs/bacteria/movies/ecoli.php).