LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Activity-Induced Enhancement of Superdiffusive Transport in Bacterial Turbulence

Photo by illiyapresents from unsplash

Superdiffusion processes significantly promote the transport of tiny passive particles within biological fluids. Activity, one of the essential measures for living matter, however, is less examined in terms of how… Click to show full abstract

Superdiffusion processes significantly promote the transport of tiny passive particles within biological fluids. Activity, one of the essential measures for living matter, however, is less examined in terms of how and to what extent it can improve the diffusivity of the moving particles. Here, bacterial suspensions are confined within the microfluidic channel at the state of bacterial turbulence, and are tuned to different activity levels by oxygen consumption in control. Systematic measurements are conducted to determine the superdiffusion exponent, which characterizes the diffusivity strength of tracer particles, depending on the continuously injecting energy converted to motile activity from swimming individuals. Higher activity is quantified to drastically enhance the superdiffusion process of passive tracers in the short-time regime. Moreover, the number density of the swimming bacteria is controlled to contribute to the field activity, and then to strengthen the super-diffusivity of tracers, distinguished by regimes with and without collective motion of interacting bacteria. Finally, the non-slip surfaces of the microfluidic channel lower the superdiffusion of immersed tracers due to the resistance, with the small diffusivity differing from the counterpart in the bulk. The findings here suggest ways of controlled diffusion and transport of substances within the living system with different levels of nutrition and resources and boundary walls, leading to efficient mixing, drug delivery and intracellular communications.

Keywords: superdiffusion; transport; activity; diffusivity; bacterial turbulence

Journal Title: Micromachines
Year Published: 2022

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.