Abstract
Motion of flagellate bacteria is considered from the point of view of rigid body mechanics. As a general case we consider a flagellate coccus magnetotactic bacterium swimming in a fluid in the presence of an external magnetic field. The proposed model generalizes previous approaches to the problem and allows one to access parameters of the motion that can be measured experimentally. The results suggest that the strong helical pattern observed in typical trajectories of magnetotactic bacteria can be a biological advantage complementary to magnetic orientation. In the particular case of zero magnetic interaction the model describes the motion of a non-magnetotactic coccus bacterium swimming in a fluid. Theoretical calculations based on experimental results are compared with the experimental track obtained by dark field optical microscopy.
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Correspondence to: H. G. P. Lins de Barros
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Nogueiral, F.S., de Barros, H.G.P.L. Study of the motion of magnetotactic bacteria. Eur Biophys J 24, 13–21 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216826
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00216826