@misc{AlirezaeizanjaniGrossmannPfeiferetal.2020, author = {Alirezaeizanjani, Zahra and Großmann, Robert and Pfeifer, Veronika and Hintsche, Marius and Beta, Carsten}, title = {Chemotaxis strategies of bacteria with multiple run modes}, series = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Zweitver{\"o}ffentlichungen der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {22}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-51909}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-519098}, pages = {10}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Bacterial chemotaxis-a fundamental example of directional navigation in the living world-is key to many biological processes, including the spreading of bacterial infections. Many bacterial species were recently reported to exhibit several distinct swimming modes-the flagella may, for example, push the cell body or wrap around it. How do the different run modes shape the chemotaxis strategy of a multimode swimmer? Here, we investigate chemotactic motion of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida as a model organism. By simultaneously tracking the position of the cell body and the configuration of its flagella, we demonstrate that individual run modes show different chemotactic responses in nutrition gradients and, thus, constitute distinct behavioral states. On the basis of an active particle model, we demonstrate that switching between multiple run states that differ in their speed and responsiveness provides the basis for robust and efficient chemotaxis in complex natural habitats.}, language = {en} } @article{GomezNavaGrossmannHintscheetal.2020, author = {G{\´o}mez-Nava, Luis and Grossmann, Robert and Hintsche, Marius and Beta, Carsten and Peruani, Fernando}, title = {A novel approach to chemotaxis}, series = {epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics}, volume = {130}, journal = {epl : a letters journal exploring the frontiers of physics}, number = {6}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0295-5075}, doi = {10.1209/0295-5075/130/68002}, pages = {7}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Motivated by the observation of non-exponential run-time distributions of bacterial swimmers, we propose a minimal phenomenological model for taxis of active particles whose motion is controlled by an internal clock. The ticking of the clock depends on an external concentration field, e.g., a chemical substance. We demonstrate that these particles can detect concentration gradients and respond to them by moving up- or down-gradient depending on the clock design, albeit measurements of these fields are purely local in space and instantaneous in time. Altogether, our results open a new route in the study of directional navigation: we show that the use of a clock to control motility actions represents a generic and versatile toolbox to engineer behavioral responses to external cues, such as light, chemical, or temperature gradients.}, language = {en} } @article{AlirezaeizanjaniGrossmannPfeiferetal.2020, author = {Alirezaeizanjani, Zahra and Großmann, Robert and Pfeifer, Veronika and Hintsche, Marius and Beta, Carsten}, title = {Chemotaxis strategies of bacteria with multiple run modes}, series = {Science advances}, volume = {6}, journal = {Science advances}, number = {22}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, address = {Washington}, issn = {2375-2548}, doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aaz6153}, pages = {8}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Bacterial chemotaxis-a fundamental example of directional navigation in the living world-is key to many biological processes, including the spreading of bacterial infections. Many bacterial species were recently reported to exhibit several distinct swimming modes-the flagella may, for example, push the cell body or wrap around it. How do the different run modes shape the chemotaxis strategy of a multimode swimmer? Here, we investigate chemotactic motion of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida as a model organism. By simultaneously tracking the position of the cell body and the configuration of its flagella, we demonstrate that individual run modes show different chemotactic responses in nutrition gradients and, thus, constitute distinct behavioral states. On the basis of an active particle model, we demonstrate that switching between multiple run states that differ in their speed and responsiveness provides the basis for robust and efficient chemotaxis in complex natural habitats.}, language = {en} } @article{HintscheWaljorGrossmannetal.2017, author = {Hintsche, Marius and Waljor, Veronika and Grossmann, Robert and K{\"u}hn, Marco J. and Thormann, Kai M. and Peruani, Fernando and Beta, Carsten}, title = {A polar bundle of flagella can drive bacterial swimming by pushing, pulling, or coiling around the cell body}, series = {Scientific reports}, volume = {7}, journal = {Scientific reports}, publisher = {Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature}, address = {London}, issn = {2045-2322}, doi = {10.1038/s41598-017-16428-9}, pages = {10}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Bacteria swim in sequences of straight runs that are interrupted by turning events. They drive their swimming locomotion with the help of rotating helical flagella. Depending on the number of flagella and their arrangement across the cell body, different run-and-turn patterns can be observed. Here, we present fluorescence microscopy recordings showing that cells of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida that are decorated with a polar tuft of helical flagella, can alternate between two distinct swimming patterns. On the one hand, they can undergo a classical push-pull-push cycle that is well known from monopolarly flagellated bacteria but has not been reported for species with a polar bundle of multiple flagella. Alternatively, upon leaving the pulling mode, they can enter a third slow swimming phase, where they propel themselves with their helical bundle wrapped around the cell body. A theoretical estimate based on a random-walk model shows that the spreading of a population of swimmers is strongly enhanced when cycling through a sequence of pushing, pulling, and wrapped flagellar configurations as compared to the simple push-pull-push pattern.}, language = {en} } @article{StangeHintscheSachseetal.2017, author = {Stange, Maike and Hintsche, Marius and Sachse, Kirsten and Gerhardt, Matthias and Valleriani, Angelo and Beta, Carsten}, title = {Analyzing the spatial positioning of nuclei in polynuclear giant cells}, series = {Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics}, volume = {50}, journal = {Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics}, number = {46}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0022-3727}, doi = {10.1088/1361-6463/aa8da0}, pages = {8}, year = {2017}, abstract = {How cells establish and maintain a well-defined size is a fundamental question of cell biology. Here we investigated to what extent the microtubule cytoskeleton can set a predefined cell size, independent of an enclosing cell membrane. We used electropulse-induced cell fusion to form giant multinuclear cells of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. Based on dual-color confocal imaging of cells that expressed fluorescent markers for the cell nucleus and the microtubules, we determined the subcellular distributions of nuclei and centrosomes in the giant cells. Our two- and three-dimensional imaging results showed that the positions of nuclei in giant cells do not fall onto a regular lattice. However, a comparison with model predictions for random positioning showed that the subcellular arrangement of nuclei maintains a low but still detectable degree of ordering. This can be explained by the steric requirements of the microtubule cytoskeleton, as confirmed by the effect of a microtubule degrading drug.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hintsche2018, author = {Hintsche, Marius}, title = {Locomotion of a bacterium with a polar bundle of flagella}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42697}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426972}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 108}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Movement and navigation are essential for many organisms during some parts of their lives. This is also true for bacteria, which can move along surfaces and swim though liquid environments. They are able to sense their environment, and move towards environmental cues in a directed fashion. These abilities enable microbial lifecyles in biofilms, improved food uptake, host infection, and many more. In this thesis we study aspects of the swimming movement - or motility - of the soil bacterium (P. putida). Like most bacteria, P. putida swims by rotating its helical flagella, but their arrangement differs from the main model organism in bacterial motility research: (E. coli). P. putida is known for its intriguing motility strategy, where fast and slow episodes can occur after each other. Up until now, it was not known how these two speeds can be produced, and what advantages they might confer to this bacterium. Normally the flagella, the main component of thrust generation in bacteria, are not observable by ordinary light microscopy. In order to elucidate this behavior, we therefore used a fluorescent staining technique on a mutant strain of this species to specifically label the flagella, while leaving the cell body only faintly stained. This allowed us to image the flagella of the swimming bacteria with high spacial and temporal resolution with a customized high speed fluorescence microscopy setup. Our observations show that P. putida can swim in three different modes. First, It can swim with the flagella pushing the cell body, which is the main mode of swimming motility previously known from other bacteria. Second, it can swim with the flagella pulling the cell body, which was thought not to be possible in situations with multiple flagella. Lastly, it can wrap its flagellar bundle around the cell body, which results in a speed wich is slower by a factor of two. In this mode, the flagella are in a different physical conformation with a larger radius so the cell body can fit inside. These three swimming modes explain the previous observation of two speeds, as well as the non strict alternation of the different speeds. Because most bacterial swimming in nature does not occur in smoothly walled glass enclosures under a microscope, we used an artificial, microfluidic, structured system of obstacles to study the motion of our model organism in a structured environment. Bacteria were observed in microchannels with cylindrical obstacles of different sizes and with different distances with video microscopy and cell tracking. We analyzed turning angles, run times, and run length, which we compared to a minimal model for movement in structured geometries. Our findings show that hydrodynamic interactions with the walls lead to a guiding of the bacteria along obstacles. When comparing the observed behavior with the statics of a particle that is deflected with every obstacle contact, we find that cells run for longer distances than that model. Navigation in chemical gradients is one of the main applications of motility in bacteria. We studied the swimming response of P. putida cells to chemical stimuli (chemotaxis) of the common food preservative sodium benzoate. Using a microfluidic gradient generation device, we created gradients of varying strength, and observed the motion of cells with a video microscope and subsequent cell tracking. Analysis of different motility parameters like run lengths and times, shows that P. putida employs the classical chemotaxis strategy of E. coli: runs up the gradient are biased to be longer than those down the gradient. Using the two different run speeds we observed due to the different swimming modes, we classify runs into `fast' and `slow' modes with a Gaussian mixture model (GMM). We find no evidence that P. putida's uses its swimming modes to perform chemotaxis. In most studies of bacterial motility, cell tracking is used to gather trajectories of individual swimming cells. These trajectories then have to be decomposed into run sections and tumble sections. Several algorithms have been developed to this end, but most require manual tuning of a number of parameters, or extensive measurements with chemotaxis mutant strains. Together with our collaborators, we developed a novel motility analysis scheme, based on generalized Kramers-Moyal-coefficients. From the underlying stochastic model, many parameters like run length etc., can be inferred by an optimization procedure without the need for explicit run and tumble classification. The method can, however, be extended to a fully fledged tumble classifier. Using this method, we analyze E. coli chemotaxis measurements in an aspartate analog, and find evidence for a chemotactic bias in the tumble angles.}, language = {en} } @article{RaatzHintscheBahrsetal.2015, author = {Raatz, Michael and Hintsche, Marius and Bahrs, Marco and Theves, Matthias and Beta, Carsten}, title = {Swimming patterns of a polarly flagellated bacterium in environments of increasing complexity}, series = {European physical journal special topics}, volume = {224}, journal = {European physical journal special topics}, number = {7}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Heidelberg}, issn = {1951-6355}, doi = {10.1140/epjst/e2015-02454-3}, pages = {1185 -- 1198}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The natural habitat of many bacterial swimmers is dominated by interfaces and narrow interstitial spacings where they frequently interact with the fluid boundaries in their vicinity. To quantify these interactions, we investigated the swimming behavior of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida in a variety of confined environments. Using microfluidic techniques, we fabricated structured microchannels with different configurations of cylindrical obstacles. In these environments, we analyzed the swimming trajectories for different obstacle densities and arrangements. Although the overall swimming pattern remained similar to movement in the bulk fluid, we observed a change in the turning angle distribution that could be attributed to collisions with the cylindrical obstacles. Furthermore, a comparison of the mean run length of the bacteria to the mean free path of a billiard particle in the same geometry indicated that, inside a densely packed environment, the trajectories of the bacterial swimmers are efficiently guided along the open spacings.}, language = {en} }