Invariance properties of bacterial random walks in complex structures

Giacomo Frangipane, Gaszton Vizsnyiczai, Claudio Maggi, Romolo Savo, Alfredo Sciortino, Sylvain Gigan and Roberto Di Leonardo ()
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Giacomo Frangipane: Sapienza Università di Roma
Gaszton Vizsnyiczai: Sapienza Università di Roma
Claudio Maggi: Institute of Nanotechnology
Romolo Savo: Sorbonne Université, Ecole Normale Supèrieure, Collège de France, CNRS UMR 8552
Alfredo Sciortino: Sapienza Università di Roma
Sylvain Gigan: Sorbonne Université, Ecole Normale Supèrieure, Collège de France, CNRS UMR 8552
Roberto Di Leonardo: Sapienza Università di Roma

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract Motile cells often explore natural environments characterized by a high degree of structural complexity. Moreover cell motility is also intrinsically noisy due to spontaneous random reorientations and speed fluctuations. This interplay of internal and external noise sources gives rise to a complex dynamical behavior that can be strongly sensitive to details and hard to model quantitatively. In striking contrast to this general picture we show that the mean residence time of swimming bacteria inside artificial complex microstructures is quantitatively predicted by a generic invariance property of random walks. We find that while external shape and internal disorder have dramatic effects on the distributions of path lengths and residence times, the corresponding mean values are constrained by the sole free surface to perimeter ratio. As a counterintuitive consequence, bacteria escape faster from structures with higher density of obstacles due to the lower accessible surface.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10455-y

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