IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v435y2005i7046d10.1038_nature03660.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Escherichia coli swim on the right-hand side

Author

Listed:
  • Willow R. DiLuzio

    (Harvard University
    Harvard University)

  • Linda Turner

    (The Rowland Institute at Harvard)

  • Michael Mayer

    (Harvard University)

  • Piotr Garstecki

    (Harvard University)

  • Douglas B. Weibel

    (Harvard University)

  • Howard C. Berg

    (The Rowland Institute at Harvard
    Harvard University)

  • George M. Whitesides

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Right thinking bacteria This is a novelty. Escherichia coli cells tend to ‘drive on the right’. Swimming in shallow microchannels made of silicone rubber with soft agar floors, the flagellum-powered bacteria may experience less hydrodynamic drag when swimming closer to the bottom agar surface than to the top silicone surface, hence a preference for a certain position in the channel. Appropriate choice of channel wall materials can guide the motion of the cells, a first step towards the development of self-contained microdevices using moving bacterial cells for cell-based bioassays and biosensors.

Suggested Citation

  • Willow R. DiLuzio & Linda Turner & Michael Mayer & Piotr Garstecki & Douglas B. Weibel & Howard C. Berg & George M. Whitesides, 2005. "Escherichia coli swim on the right-hand side," Nature, Nature, vol. 435(7046), pages 1271-1274, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:435:y:2005:i:7046:d:10.1038_nature03660
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03660
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03660
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature03660?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chuan Xue & Elena O Budrene & Hans G Othmer, 2011. "Radial and Spiral Stream Formation in Proteus mirabilis Colonies," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:435:y:2005:i:7046:d:10.1038_nature03660. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.