All in one: holographic microscopy unveils bacterial transport from single cells to population

TL;DR

This study uses digital holographic microscopy to analyze the transport behavior of motile bacteria in confined flow, revealing new insights into their spatial distribution and interactions with surfaces at the population level.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates the effectiveness of DHM in tracking large bacterial populations in flow and uncovers new spatial and orientational distribution patterns near surfaces.

Findings

DHM can distinguish bacteria adhesion, flow convection, and motility-driven migration.

Migration and shear trapping are consistent with existing kinetic models.

Accumulation layers near walls lack net orientational order, challenging current models.

Abstract

Prior to pioneer surface adhesion, bacteria have to navigate in flows, often in confined environments. While much is known about their individual swimming dynamics, our understanding of their transport properties at the population level remains limited. This is primarily due to the experimental challenges associated with tracking, in three dimensions and under flow, a large sample of these microorganisms. Here we investigate, through fast digital holographic microscopy (DHM), a suspension of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 bacteria in a confined Poiseuille flow. Based on the analysis of several thousand Lagrangian trajectories, we first demonstrate the ability of DHM to discriminate between the fraction of bacteria that adhere to walls, those that are only convected by the flow, and those for which motility helps them migrate through the channel and cross streamlines. Focusing on the motile part of the population, we report new experimental results concerning the spatial and orientational distributions across the confinement direction. In the central part of the flow, migration and shear trapping are observed and well described by existing kinetic models. Close to the walls, averaging over the entire motile population clearly shows an accumulation layer but with no net orientational order, which contradicts models that neglect hydrodynamic interactions with solid surfaces. We think that DHM coupled with the analysis of large-scale bacterial populations will help to understand their transfer mechanisms from the bulk to surfaces.