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MathBio Seminar

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 4:00pm

Alexander Petroff

Clark University

Location

University of Pennsylvania

DRL 2C8

Magnetotactic bacteria swim along geomagnetic field lines to navigate the pore spaces of water-saturated sediment. To understand the physical basis for efficient navigation in confined geometries, we observe the motion of Multicellular Magnetotactic Bacteria through an artificial pore space under an applied magnetic field. Magnetotaxis is fastest when bacteria swim a distance of order the pore size in the time required to align with the applied field. A model---in which bacteria deterministically align with the magnetic field and randomly scatter off boundaries---predicts the non-monotonic relationship between the drift velocity and applied magnetic field and the value of the maximum drift velocity. A comparison of diverse MTB shows that the magnetic moments, swimming speeds, and hydrodynamic mobilities of different species covary such that the average speed of magnetotaxis for each species is close to optimal for its natural environment.

 

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