Swimming of bacterium \textit{Bacillus subtilis} with multiple bundles of flagella
Javad Najafi, Florian Altegoer, Gert Bange, and Christian Wagner

TL;DR
This study investigates how the number and configuration of flagella in Bacillus subtilis bacteria influence their swimming behavior, revealing that bundle formation is consistent across strains and affects motility.
Contribution
The paper provides new insights into the relationship between flagellar bundle properties and bacterial swimming, showing independence of bundle number from flagella count and linking geometry to motility.
Findings
Number of bundles is independent of flagella count
Most bacteria form three bundles regardless of strain
Swimming speed is anti-correlated with bundle angle
Abstract
We characterize the bundle properties for three different strains of \textit{B. subtilis} bacteria with various numbers of flagella. Our study reveals that, surprisingly, the number of bundles is independent of the number of flagella, and the formation of three bundles is always the most frequent case. We assume that this relates to the fact that different mutants have the same body length. There is no significant difference between the bundle width and length for distinct strains, but the projected angle between the bundles increases with the flagellar number. Furthermore, we find that the swimming speed is anti-correlated with the projected angle between the bundles, and the wobbling angle between the swimming direction and cell body increases with the number of flagella. Our findings highlight the impact of geometrical properties of bacteria such as body length and bundle…
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