ArticleNature communications2022
Suicidal chemotaxis in bacteria.
Article in Nature communications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Functional proteomic analysis revealsVirulence · 2026Article
- Repulsion from slow-diffusing nutrients improves microbial chemotaxis towards moving sources.Nature communications · 2026Article
- A nutrient bottleneck controls antibiotic efficacy in structured bacterial populations.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Reactive oxygen species in the rhizosphere orchestrate the recruitment of beneficial bacteria.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Influence of cell-cell distance on the ecology and evolution of microbial communities.The ISME journal · 2026Review
- Selective Trapping of Bacteria in Porous Media by Cell Length.Integrative and comparative biology · 2026Article
- Microfluidics to Meet Antibiotic Resistance: A Growing Research Frontier.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Spatial proximity dictates bacterial competition and expansion in microbial communities.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The type IV pilus steering committee: how Pil-Chp controls directional motility.Journal of bacteriology · 2025Review
- Long-read methylome analysis of Oleidesulfovibrio alaskensis G20 biofilm under copper stress.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Individual bacterial cells can use spatial sensing of chemical gradients to direct chemotaxis on surfaces.Nature microbiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Article
- Life at the borderlands: microbiomes of interfaces critical to One Health.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- The motility and chemosensory systems of Rhizobium leguminosarum, their role in symbiosis, and link to PTSEnvironmental microbiology · 2024Article
- Tad pili contribute to the virulence and biofilm formation of virulentFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Stable diffusion gradients in microfluidic conduits bounded by fluid walls.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2024Article
- Bacterial motility can govern the dynamics of antibiotic resistance evolution.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Reconfigurable Microfluidic Circuits for Isolating and Retrieving Cells of Interest.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteria commonly live in surface-associated communities where steep gradients of antibiotics and other chemical compounds can occur. While many bacterial species move on surfaces, we know surprisingly little about how such antibiotic gradients affect cell motility. Here, we study the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa in stable spatial gradients of several antibiotics by tracking thousands of cells in microfluidic devices as they form biofilms. Unexpectedly, these experiments reveal that bacteria use pili-based ('twitching') motility to navigate towards antibiotics. Our analyses suggest that this behaviour is driven by a general response to the effects of antibiotics on cells. Migrating bacteria reach antibiotic concentrations hundreds of times higher than their minimum inhibitory concentration within hours and remain highly motile. However, isolating cells - using fluid-walled microfluidic devices - reveals that these bacteria are terminal and unable to reproduce. Despite moving towards their death, migrating cells are capable of entering a suicidal program to release bacteriocins that kill other bacteria. This behaviour suggests that the cells are responding to antibiotics as if they come from a competing colony growing nearby, inducing them to invade and attack. As a result, clinical antibiotics have the potential to lure bacteria to their death.
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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.