Measurement and control of the group of bacteria in a confined region

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K17975
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Fluid engineering
• Research Institution: Tottori University
• Principal Investigator: Nakai Tonau 鳥取大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (80452548)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 細菌 / べん毛 / 集団運動 / 走化性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to understand mechanism of the collective motion in a dense suspension of swimming bacteria and to control the collective motion. Results are as follows: (1) collective motion of bacteria can be confined in a circular pool on an agar medium with the size of 10 micrometers, which is made with ultrafine glass needle operated by a micromanipulator. (2) Accumulating bacteria around the tip of a capillary with an attractant were observed. When a cell swims toward the attractant, frequency of the tumble of a cell decreases (from 0.5 Hz to 0.3 Hz). (3) Motion of microbeads in the bacterial suspension was analyzed. The mean square displacement (MSD) of the microbeads is different from Brownian motion in the sense that the time exponent of the MSD is 1.7 - 1.8, whereas that of a Brownian particle is exactly 1.

Free Research Field

バイオ流体力学