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Journal Article

Quantifying gliding forces of filamentous cyanobacteria by self-buckling

MPS-Authors
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Kurjahn,  Maximilian
Group Fluidics in heterogeneous environments, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons298892

Deka,  Antaran
Group Fluidics in heterogeneous environments, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons255518

Girot,  Antoine
Group Dynamics of fluid and biological interfaces, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

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Abbaspour,  Leila
Group Fluidics in heterogeneous environments, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

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Bäumchen,  Oliver
Group Dynamics of fluid and biological interfaces, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons208819

Karpitschka,  Stefan
Group Fluidics in heterogeneous environments, Department of Dynamics of Complex Fluids, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Kurjahn, M., Deka, A., Girot, A., Abbaspour, L., Klumpp, S., Lorenz, M., et al. (2024). Quantifying gliding forces of filamentous cyanobacteria by self-buckling. eLife, 12: RP87450. doi:10.7554/eLife.87450.3.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000F-724F-9
Abstract
Filamentous cyanobacteria are one of the oldest and today still most abundant lifeforms on earth, with manifold implications in ecology and economics. Their flexible filaments, often several hundred cells long, exhibit gliding motility in contact with solid surfaces. The underlying force generating mechanism is not yet understood. Here, we demonstrate that propulsion forces and friction coefficients are strongly coupled in the gliding motility of filamentous cyanobacteria. We directly measure their bending moduli using micropipette force sensors, and quantify propulsion and friction forces by analyzing their self-buckling behavior, complemented with analytical theory and simulations. The results indicate that slime extrusion unlikely generates the gliding forces, but support adhesion-based hypotheses, similar to the better-studied single-celled myxobacteria. The critical self-buckling lengths align well with the peaks of natural length distributions, indicating the importance of self-buckling for the organization of their collective in natural and artificial settings.