ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Single-cell twitching chemotaxis in developing biofilms.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bacteria regulate collective behaviour by mechanosensing cell-cell collisions.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- The stoichiometry of minor-to-major pilins regulates the dynamic activity of the type IVa competence pilus in Vibrio cholerae.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Analyzing the effects of benzodiazepines on the virulence and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The type IV pilus steering committee: how Pil-Chp controls directional motility.Journal of bacteriology · 2025Review
- Review
- Review
- Internal cohesion gradient as a novel mechanism of collective cell migration.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Rapid water flow triggers long-distance positive rheotaxis for thermophilic bacteria.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Evidence of universal conformal invariance in living biological matter.Nature physics · 2025Article
- A wearable and stretchable dual-wavelength LED device for home care of chronic infected wounds.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Beyond Antibiotics: What the Future Holds.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- VirB11, a traffic ATPase, mediated flagella assembly and type IV pilus morphogenesis to control the motility and virulence of Xanthomonas albilineans.Molecular plant pathology · 2024Article
- Individual bacterial cells can use spatial sensing of chemical gradients to direct chemotaxis on surfaces.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Microbes in porous environments: from active interactions to emergent feedback.Biophysical reviews · 2024Review
- The type IV pilus chemoreceptor PilJ controls chemotaxis of one bacterial species towards another.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Bacterial motility can govern the dynamics of antibiotic resistance evolution.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Bacteria in Fluid Flow.Journal of bacteriology · 2023Review
- Bacterial Motility and Its Role in Skin and Wound Infections.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Suicidal chemotaxis in bacteria.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria form surface-attached communities, known as biofilms, which are central to bacterial biology and how they affect us. Although surface-attached bacteria often experience strong chemical gradients, it remains unclear whether single cells can effectively perform chemotaxis on surfaces. Here we use microfluidic chemical gradients and massively parallel automated tracking to study the behavior of the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa during early biofilm development. We show that individual cells can efficiently move toward chemoattractants using pili-based "twitching" motility and the Chp chemosensory system. Moreover, we discovered the behavioral mechanism underlying this surface chemotaxis: Cells reverse direction more frequently when moving away from chemoattractant sources. These corrective maneuvers are triggered rapidly, typically before a wayward cell has ventured a fraction of a micron. Our work shows that single bacteria can direct their motion with submicron precision and reveals the hidden potential for chemotaxis within bacterial biofilms.
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Registered trials
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.