A new SFB 1313 publication is published in "Soft Matter". The work has been developed by researchers involved in Project C01.
Influence of bacterial swimming and hydrodynamics on attachment of phages
Authors
- Christoph Lohrmann (University of Stuttgart, research project C01)
- Christian Holm (University of Stuttgart, research project C01)
- Sujit S. Datta (Princeton University)
Abstract
Bacteriophages (“phages”) are viruses that infect bacteria. Since they do not actively self-propel, phages rely on thermal diffusion to find target cells—but can also be advected by fluid flows, such as those generated by motile bacteria themselves in bulk fluids. How does the flow field generated by a swimming bacterium influence how it encounters phages? Here, we address this question using coupled molecular dynamics and lattice Boltzmann simulations of flagellated bacteria swimming through a bulk fluid containing uniformly-dispersed phages. We find that while swimming increases the rate at which phages attach to both the cell body and flagellar propeller, hydrodynamic interactions strongly suppress this increase at the cell body, but conversely enhance this increase at the flagellar bundle. Our results highlight the pivotal influence of hydrodynamics on the interactions between bacteria and phages, as well as other diffusible species, in microbial environments.