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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 10 1995, 3567-3572, Vol 61, No. 10
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology

Unidirectional motility of Escherichia coli in restrictive capillaries

Z Liu and KD Papadopoulos
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA.

In a 6-microns capillary filled with buffer and in the absence of any chemotactic stimuli, Escherichia coli K-12 cells swim persistently in only one direction. This behavior of E. coli can be simply explained by means of the length and relative rigidity of their flagella. Single- cell motility parameters--swimming speed, turn angle, and run length time--were measured. Compared with the motility parameters measured in bulk phase, turn angle was influenced because of the effect of the geometrical restriction.