Issue 45, 2013
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Motility fractionation of bacteria by centrifugation†

Claudio Maggi,*a   Alessia Lepore,bc   Jacopo Solari,a   Alessandro Rizzoa  and  Roberto Di Leonardoac  

* Corresponding authors

a Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “Sapienza”, Roma, Italy
E-mail: claudio.maggi@roma1.infn.it

b Dipartimento di Matematica e Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Roma Tre, Roma, Italy

c CNR-IPCF UOS Roma c/o Dipartimento Fisica, Università di Roma “Sapienza”, 00185 Rome, Italy

Abstract

Centrifugation is a widespread laboratory technique used to separate mixtures into fractions characterized by a specific size, weight or density. We demonstrate that centrifugation can also be used to separate swimming cells having different motilities. To do this we study self-propelled bacteria under the influence of an external centrifugal field. Using dynamic image correlation spectroscopy we measure the spatially resolved motility of bacteria after centrifugation. A significant gradient in swimming-speeds is observed for increasing centrifugal speeds. Our results can be reproduced by a model that treats bacteria as “hot” colloidal particles having a diffusion coefficient that depends on the swimming speed.

Graphical abstract: Motility fractionation of bacteria by centrifugation

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3SM51223A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
02 May 2013
Accepted
27 Sep 2013
First published
27 Sep 2013

Soft Matter, 2013,9, 10885-10890

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Motility fractionation of bacteria by centrifugation

C. Maggi, A. Lepore, J. Solari, A. Rizzo and R. Di Leonardo, Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 10885 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM51223A

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