ArticleeLife2024
Quantifying gliding forces of filamentous cyanobacteria by self-buckling.
Article in eLife, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 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
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Chiral gliding: Right-handed navigation of filamentous cyanobacteria.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Form and function in biological filaments: a physicist's review.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Review
- Collective self-caging of active filaments in virtual confinement.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Article
- Symbiotic relationship between filamentous algae (Frontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Structural mechanics of filamentous cyanobacteria.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Filamentous cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and today still most abundant lifeforms on earth, with manifold implications in ecology and economics. Their flexible filaments, often several hundred cells long, exhibit gliding motility in contact with solid surfaces. The underlying force generating mechanism is not yet understood. Here, we demonstrate that propulsion forces and friction coefficients are strongly coupled in the gliding motility of filamentous cyanobacteria. We directly measure their bending moduli using micropipette force sensors, and quantify propulsion and friction forces by analyzing their self-buckling behavior, complemented with analytical theory and simulations. The results indicate that slime extrusion unlikely generates the gliding forces, but support adhesion-based hypotheses, similar to the better-studied single-celled myxobacteria. The critical self-buckling lengths align well with the peaks of natural length distributions, indicating the importance of self-buckling for the organization of their collective in natural and artificial settings.
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Registered trials
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