ArticleBiophysical journal2002
A mathematical explanation of an increase in bacterial swimming speed with viscosity in linear-polymer solutions.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed.
- Measurement of the Cell-Body Rotation of Leptospira.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Bacteria can rotate while body tethered to a solid surface.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- The role of morphological adaptability inmBio · 2025Article
- Unravel the rotational and translational behavior of a single squirmer in flexible polymer solutions at different Reynolds numbers.Communications physics · 2025Article
- Physical mechanism reveals bacterial slowdown above a critical number of flagella.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- The bacterial flagellum as an object for optical trapping.Biophysical reviews · 2024Review
- Flagellar motors of swimming bacteria contain an incomplete set of stator units to ensure robust motility.Science advances · 2023Article
- Reduced surface accumulation of swimming bacteria in viscoelastic polymer fluids.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Article
- Motility of the Zoonotic SpirocheteInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Quantification of Motility inFrontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Implications of back-and-forth motion and powerful propulsion for spirochetal invasion.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Spirochete Flagella and Motility.Biomolecules · 2020Review
- Behaviors and Energy Source ofJournal of bacteriology · 2019Article
- Predicting and Optimizing Microswimmer Performance from the Hydrodynamics of Its Components: The Relevance of Interactions.Soft robotics · 2018Article
- Influence of the viscosity of healthy and diseased human mucins on the motility of Helicobacter pylori.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Changes in the flagellar bundling time account for variations in swimming behavior of flagellated bacteria in viscous media.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2018Article
- Nonmotile Single-Cell Migration as a Random Walk in Nonuniformity: The "Extreme Dumping Limit" for Cell-to-Cell Communications.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2018Article
- The Helical Shape of Campylobacter jejuni Promotes In Vivo Pathogenesis by Aiding Transit through Intestinal Mucus and Colonization of Crypts.Infection and immunity · 2016Article
- A new cell morphotype among methane oxidizers: a spiral-shaped obligately microaerophilic methanotroph from northern low-oxygen environments.The ISME journal · 2016Article
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2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Bacterial swimming speed is sometimes known to increase with viscosity. This phenomenon is peculiar to bacterial motion. Berg and Turner (Nature. 278:349-351, 1979) indicated that the phenomenon was caused by a loose, quasi-rigid network formed by polymer molecules that were added to increase viscosity. We mathematically developed their concept by introducing two apparent viscosities and obtained results similar to the experimental data reported before. Addition of polymer improved the propulsion efficiency, which surpasses the decline in flagellar rotation rate, and the swimming speed increased with viscosity.
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