Statistics of pathogenic bacteria in the search of host cells

Stefan Otte, Emiliano Perez Ipiña, Rodolphe Pontier-Bres, Dorota Czerucka () and Fernando Peruani ()
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Stefan Otte: Université Côte d’Azur, Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR 7351 CNRS
Emiliano Perez Ipiña: Université Côte d’Azur, Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR 7351 CNRS
Rodolphe Pontier-Bres: LIA ROPSE, Laboratoire International Associé Université Côte d’Azur - Centre Scientifique de Monaco
Dorota Czerucka: LIA ROPSE, Laboratoire International Associé Université Côte d’Azur - Centre Scientifique de Monaco
Fernando Peruani: Université Côte d’Azur, Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné, UMR 7351 CNRS

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract A crucial phase in the infection process, which remains poorly understood, is the localization of suitable host cells by bacteria. It is often assumed that chemotaxis plays a key role during this phase. Here, we report a quantitative study on how Salmonella Typhimurium search for T84 human colonic epithelial cells. Combining time-lapse microscopy and mathematical modeling, we show that bacteria can be described as chiral active particles with strong active speed fluctuations, which are of biological, as opposed to thermal, origin. We observe that there exists a giant range of inter-individual variability of the bacterial exploring capacity. Furthermore, we find Salmonella Typhimurium does not exhibit biased motion towards the cells and show that the search time statistics is consistent with a random search strategy. Our results indicate that in vitro localization of host cells, and also cell infection, are random processes, not involving chemotaxis, that strongly depend on bacterial motility parameters.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22156-6

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