2024/09/20 by Jinglei Hu, Gui Chen, Hu, Jinglei +8
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Materials Science · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.13350
openalex publication_date 2024/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A flagellated bacterium navigates fluid environments by rotating its helical flagellar bundle. The wobbling of the bacterial body significantly influences its swimming behavior. To quantify the three underlying motions--precession, nutation, and spin, we extract the Euler angles from trajectories generated by mesoscale hydrodynamics simulations, which is experimentally unattainable. In contrast to the common assumption, the cell body does not undergo complete cycles of spin, a general result for multiflagellated bacteria. Our simulations produce apparent wobbling periods that closely match the results of \it E. coli obtained from experiments and reveal the presence of two kinds of precession modes, consistent with theoretical analysis. Small-amplitude yet periodic nutation is also observed in the simulations.