Evidence map›Paper›PMID 17189361›Full record

ArticleJournal of bacteriology2007

On torque and tumbling in swimming Escherichia coli.

Nicholas C Darnton, Linda Turner, Svetlana Rojevsky, Howard C Berg

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of bacteriology, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 141 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
141citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

141 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Flagellar location determines the stability of bacterial surface entrapment.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  5. Load-dependent resistive-force theory for helical filaments.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025
    Article
  6. Bacteria Optimize Tumble Bias to Strategically Navigate Surface Constraints.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025
    Article
  7. Run-and-tumble dynamics ofJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025
    Article
  8. Bacterial motility depends on a critical flagellum length and energy-optimized assembly.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  9. On the backward excursions in the free-swimming magnetotactic multicellular prokaryote 'Candidatus Magnetoglobus multicellularis'.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2025
    Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Multiorifice acoustic microrobot for boundary-free multimodal 3D swimming.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  14. Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Reassessing the Standard Chemotaxis Framework for Understanding Biased Migration inAnnual review of chemical and biomolecular engineering · 2024
    Review

81 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Nicholas C DarntonRowland Institute at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Linda Turner
Svetlana Rojevsky
Howard C Berg

Funding

SENSORY TRANSDUCTION IN BACTERIAL CHEMOTAXISR01AI016478 · NIAID · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI BERG, HOWARD C · 1985 to 2019
$14.1M
Mechanics of Bacterial SwarmingR01AI065540 · NIAID · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI BERG, HOWARD C · 2005 to 2010
$1.3M
Mechanics of Bacterial SwarmingR56AI065540 · NIAID · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI BERG, HOWARD C · 2011 to 2011
$338k
SENSORY TRANSDUCTION IN BACTERIAL CHEMOTAXISR37AI016478 · NIAID · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · PI BERG, HOWARD C · 1990 to 1999
–
NIAID NIH HHS AI016478NIAID NIH HHS AI065540NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI016478NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI065540NIAID NIH HHS R37 AI016478NIAID NIH HHS R56 AI065540
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Bacteria swim by rotating long thin helical filaments, each driven at its base by a reversible rotary motor. When the motors of peritrichous cells turn counterclockwise (CCW), their filaments form bundles that drive the cells forward. We imaged fluorescently labeled cells of Escherichia coli with a high-speed charge-coupled-device camera (500 frames/s) and measured swimming speeds, rotation rates of cell bodies, and rotation rates of flagellar bundles. Using cells stuck to glass, we studied individual filaments, stopping their rotation by exposing the cells to high-intensity light. From these measurements we calculated approximate values for bundle torque and thrust and body torque and drag, and we estimated the filament stiffness. For both immobilized and swimming cells, the motor torque, as estimated using resistive force theory, was significantly lower than the motor torque reported previously. Also, a bundle of several flagella produced little more torque than a single flagellum produced. Motors driving individual filaments frequently changed directions of rotation. Usually, but not always, this led to a change in the handedness of the filament, which went through a sequence of polymorphic transformations, from normal to semicoiled to curly 1 and then, when the motor again spun CCW, back to normal. Motor reversals were necessary, although not always sufficient, to cause changes in filament chirality. Polymorphic transformations among helices having the same handedness occurred without changes in the sign of the applied torque.

Indexed as

Escherichia coliFlagellaMovementRotationTorque

Identifiers

PMID17189361
PMCPMC1855780

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.