A Simple Technique Based on a Single Optical Trap for the Determination of Bacterial Swimming Pattern |
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Authors: | Ignacio A. Martínez Susana Campoy Meritxell Tort Montserrat Llagostera Dmitri Petrov |
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Affiliation: | 1. ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Castelldefels, Spain.; 2. Departament de Genètica i de Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.; 3. ICREA - Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Barcelona, Spain.; University of Zurich, Switzerland, |
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Abstract: | Bacterial motility is associated to a wide range of biological processes and it plays a key role in the virulence of many pathogens. Here we describe a method to distinguish the dynamic properties of bacteria by analyzing the statistical functions derived from the trajectories of a bacterium trapped by a single optical beam. The approach is based on the model of the rotation of a solid optically trapped sphere. The technique is easily implemented in a biological laboratory, since with only a small number of optical and electronic components a simple biological microscope can be converted into the required analyzer. To illustrate the functionality of this method, we probed several serovar Typhimurium mutants that differed from the wild-type with respect to their swimming patterns. In a further application, the motility dynamics of the Typhimurium mutant were characterized. |
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