2020/05/25 by Praneet Prakash, Prakash, P., Amith Z. Abdulla +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Cell Behavior (q-bio.CB) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies #Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2005.12070
openalex publication_date 2020/05/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Burgeoning interest in the area of bacteria-powered micro robotic systems prompted us to study the dynamics of cargo transport by single bacteria. In this paper, we have studied the swimming behaviour of oil-droplets attached as a cargo to the cell bodies of single bacteria. The oil-droplet loaded bacteria exhibit super-diffusive motion which is characterized by high degree of directional persistence. Interestingly, bacteria could navigate even when loaded with oil-droplets as large as 8 microns with an effective increase in rotational drag by more than 2 orders when compared to free bacteria. Further, the directional persistence of oil-droplet loaded bacteria was independent of the cargo size.