Liebchen, B. ; Monderkamp, P. ; Hagen, B. ten ; Löwen, H. (2018)
Viscotaxis: Microswimmer Navigation in Viscosity Gradients.
In: Phys. Rev. Lett., 120 (20)
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.208002
Artikel, Bibliographie
Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)
The survival of many microorganisms, like Leptospira or Spiroplasma bacteria, can depend on their ability to navigate towards regions of favorable viscosity. While this ability, called viscotaxis, has been observed in several bacterial experiments, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We provide a framework to study viscotaxis of biological or synthetic self-propelled swimmers in slowly varying viscosity fields and show that suitable body shapes create viscotaxis based on a systematic asymmetry of viscous forces acting on a microswimmer. Our results shed new light on viscotaxis in Spiroplasma and Leptospira and suggest that dynamic body shape changes exhibited by both types of microorganisms may have an unrecognized functionality: to prevent them from drifting to low viscosity regions where they swim poorly. The present theory classifies microswimmers regarding their ability to show viscotaxis and can be used to design synthetic viscotactic swimmers, e.g., for delivering drugs to a target region distinguished by viscosity.
| Typ des Eintrags: | Artikel |
|---|---|
| Erschienen: | 2018 |
| Autor(en): | Liebchen, B. ; Monderkamp, P. ; Hagen, B. ten ; Löwen, H. |
| Art des Eintrags: | Bibliographie |
| Titel: | Viscotaxis: Microswimmer Navigation in Viscosity Gradients |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Publikationsjahr: | 15 Mai 2018 |
| Titel der Zeitschrift, Zeitung oder Schriftenreihe: | Phys. Rev. Lett. |
| Jahrgang/Volume einer Zeitschrift: | 120 |
| (Heft-)Nummer: | 20 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.208002 |
| Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract): | The survival of many microorganisms, like Leptospira or Spiroplasma bacteria, can depend on their ability to navigate towards regions of favorable viscosity. While this ability, called viscotaxis, has been observed in several bacterial experiments, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We provide a framework to study viscotaxis of biological or synthetic self-propelled swimmers in slowly varying viscosity fields and show that suitable body shapes create viscotaxis based on a systematic asymmetry of viscous forces acting on a microswimmer. Our results shed new light on viscotaxis in Spiroplasma and Leptospira and suggest that dynamic body shape changes exhibited by both types of microorganisms may have an unrecognized functionality: to prevent them from drifting to low viscosity regions where they swim poorly. The present theory classifies microswimmers regarding their ability to show viscotaxis and can be used to design synthetic viscotactic swimmers, e.g., for delivering drugs to a target region distinguished by viscosity. |
| Freie Schlagworte: | publiziert |
| Fachbereich(e)/-gebiet(e): | 05 Fachbereich Physik 05 Fachbereich Physik > Institut für Festkörperphysik (2021 umbenannt in Institut für Physik Kondensierter Materie (IPKM)) |
| Hinterlegungsdatum: | 28 Mai 2019 05:06 |
| Letzte Änderung: | 16 Aug 2021 14:54 |
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