Geometric effects induce anomalous size-dependent active transport in structured environments
Pooja Chopra, David Quint, Ajay Gopinathan, Bin Liu
Abstract
A multiscale investigation of swimming bacteria in a micropillar array permits measurement of cell body sizes and long-term diffusivities of individuals in a structured medium. When pillar spacing is on the order of the bacterium size, diffusivity behaves anomalously. While shorter cells are trapped by individual pillars through hydrodynamic attraction, causing them to circulate around the pillars, longer cells escape more easily due to simultaneous interactions with multiple pillars. Such size-dependent trapping and escaping is well characterized by a geometric model, suggesting the essential role of environmental and bacterial geometry in governing long-range transport.
Topics & Concepts
PillarThermal diffusivityTrappingChemical physicsRange (aeronautics)BiophysicsGeometric shapeNanotechnologyDiffusionCell sizeMaterials scienceMechanicsPhysicsBiological systemGeometryBiologyEcologyThermodynamicsMathematicsEngineeringComposite materialCell biologyStructural engineeringMicro and Nano RoboticsMicrofluidic and Bio-sensing TechnologiesMolecular Communication and Nanonetworks