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Self-sustained turbulent structures have been observed in a wide range of living fluids, yet no quantitative theory exists to explain their properties. We report experiments on active turbulence in highly concentrated 3D suspensions of Bacillus subtilis and compare them with a minimal fourth-order vector-field theory for incompressible bacterial dynamics. Velocimetry of bacteria and surrounding fluid, determined by imaging cells and tracking colloidal tracers, yields consistent results for velocity statistics and correlations over two orders of magnitude in kinetic energy, revealing a decrease of fluid memory with increasing swimming activity and linear scaling between energy and enstrophy. The best-fit model parameters allow for quantitative agreement with experimental data.
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Colonies of bacterial cells endowed with a pili-based self-propulsion machinery represent an ideal model system for studying how active adhesion forces affect structure and dynamics of many-particle systems. As a novel computational tool, we describe here a highly parallel molecular dynamics simulation package for modeling of textit{Neisseria gonorrhoeae} colonies. Simulations are employed to investigate growth of bacterial colonies and the dependence of the colony structure on cell-cell interactions. In agreement with experimental data, active pilus retraction is found to enhance local ordering. For mixed colonies consisting of different types of cell types, the simulations show a segregation of cell types depending on the pili-mediated interactions, as seen in experiments. Using a simulated experimental setup, we study the power-spectral density of colony-shape fluctuations and the associated fluctuation-response relation. The simulations predict a strong violation of the equilibrium fluctuation-response relation across the measurable frequency range. Lastly, we illustrate the essential role of active force generation for colony dynamics by showing that pilus-mediated activity drives the spreading of colonies on surfaces and the invasion of narrow channels.
Circular milling, a stunning manifestation of collective motion, is found across the natural world, from fish shoals to army ants. It has been observed recently that the plant-animal worm $Symsagittifera~roscoffensis$ exhibits circular milling behaviour, both in shallow pools at the beach and in Petri dishes in the laboratory. Here we investigate this phenomenon, through experiment and theory, from a fluid dynamical viewpoint, focusing on the effect that an established circular mill has on the surrounding fluid. Unlike systems such as confined bacterial suspensions and collections of molecular motors and filaments that exhibit spontaneous circulatory behaviour, and which are modelled as force dipoles, the front-back symmetry of individual worms precludes a stresslet contribution. Instead, singularities such as source dipoles and Stokes quadrupoles are expected to dominate. A series of models is analyzed to understand the contributions of these singularities to the azimuthal flow fields generated by a mill, in light of the particular boundary conditions that hold for flow in a Petri dish. A model that treats a circular mill as a rigid rotating disc that generates a Stokes flow is shown to capture basic experimental results well, and gives insights into the emergence and stability of multiple mill systems.
It is widely believed that the swimming speed, $v$, of many flagellated bacteria is a non-monotonic function of the concentration, $c$, of high-molecular-weight linear polymers in aqueous solution, showing peaked $v(c)$ curves. Pores in the polymer solution were suggested as the explanation. Quantifying this picture led to a theory that predicted peaked $v(c)$ curves. Using new, high-throughput methods for characterising motility, we have measured $v$, and the angular frequency of cell-body rotation, $Omega$, of motile Escherichia coli as a function of polymer concentration in polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and Ficoll solutions of different molecular weights. We find that non-monotonic $v(c)$ curves are typically due to low-molecular weight impurities. After purification by dialysis, the measured $v(c)$ and $Omega(c)$ relations for all but the highest molecular weight PVP can be described in detail by Newtonian hydrodynamics. There is clear evidence for non-Newtonian effects in the highest molecular weight PVP solution. Calculations suggest that this is due to the fast-rotating flagella `seeing a lower viscosity than the cell body, so that flagella can be seen as nano-rheometers for probing the non-Newtonian behavior of high polymer solutions on a molecular scale.
Mechanical stress plays an intricate role in gene expression in individual cells and sculpting of developing tissues. However, systematic methods of studying how mechanical stress and feedback help to harmonize cellular activities within a tissue have yet to be developed. Motivated by our observation of the cellular constriction chains (CCCs) during the initial phase of ventral furrow formation in the Drosophila melanogaster embryo, we propose an active granular fluid (AGF) model that provides valuable insights into cellular coordination in the apical constriction process. In our model, cells are treated as circular particles connected by a predefined force network, and they undergo a random constriction process in which the particle constriction probability P is a function of the stress exerted on the particle by its neighbors. We find that when P favors tensile stress, constricted particles tend to form chain-like structures. In contrast, constricted particles tend to form compact clusters when P favors compression. A remarkable similarity of constricted-particle chains and CCCs observed in vivo provides indirect evidence that tensile-stress feedback coordinates the apical constriction activity. We expect that our particle-based AGF model will be useful in analyzing mechanical feedback effects in a wide variety of morphogenesis and organogenesis phenomena.
As described in the work of Mietke et al. (1) the deformation (defined as 1 - circularity [see (2)]) of a purely elastic, spherical object deformed in a real-time deformability cytometry (RT-DC) experiment can be mapped to its apparent Youngs Modulus. This note is supposed to help a fast and correct mapping of RT-DC results - namely, deformation and size - to values of the apparent Youngs Modulus E.
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