How Do Bacteria Move Inside Our Bodies? Study Reveals How Microbes Make a Beeline to Squeeze Through Tight Spaces

New research showed that bacteria change their swimming patterns when entering tight spaces, making a beeline to flee from confinement.

A EurekAlert! report specified that in the study, researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa indicated that almost all organisms are hosting bacteria living symbiotically on, or within their bodies.

Essentially, the Hawaiian bobtail squid, also called Euprymna scolopes, is forming an exclusive symbiotic link with the marine bacterium Vibro fischeri which doesn't have a whip-like tail that it's using to swim to particular places in the body of the squid.

A team of researchers designed controlled chambers in which they could the bacteria, Vibrio swimming. With the use of microscopy, the team found that the bacteria moved between open areas, as well as between tight spaces, they're swimming differently.

Bacteria's Swimming Behavior

They change their swimming behavior, in particular, to avoid getting trapped in confined spaces. According to Johnathan Lynch, who led the research team, their finding "was quite surprising."

Lynch, who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, added, at first, they were searching for how bacterial cells changed their tails' shape when they moved into tight spaces, although they found that they were having trouble actually, discovering cells in the tight spaces.

After they looked more closely, the researchers found out that it was because bacteria were swimming actively out of the tight spaces, which they did not expect.

Essentially, in open spaces, without chemicals to be drawn to, or repelled from, bacteria seemed to wander with no tangible pattern, randomly changing direction, and at different points in time.

When the bacteria entered confined spaces, they straightened their swimming paths to flee from confinement.

Link Between Squid and the Bacterium

The study published in Biophysical Journal showed that the link between the squid and this bacterium is a helpful model of how bacteria live with other animals like the human microbiome.

Bactria frequently traverse complex routes, at times squeezing through the tight spaces in tissues, before colonizing preferred areas in their host organism.

A mixture of chemicals and nutrients within hosts are known to have guided bacteria toward their eventual destination.

Nonetheless, less is known about how physical features such as corners, walls and tight spaces impact bacterial swimming, in spite of the fact that these physical characteristics are found across numerous bacteria-animal associations.

Swimming, Squeezing Between Tight Spaces

Lynch said that their findings show that tight spaces may serve as an added, essential cue for bacteria while they're navigating complicated environments to enter specific habitats.

He also said that swimming patterns in tight spaces may enable some microbes to swiftly swim through the tight spaces to get to the other side, although for others, they turn around before getting stuck, a similar Bioengineer report said.

This, the lead author added, is kind of "like choosing whether to run through a rickety bridge" or turn around before getting too far.

In the future, the study investigators are hoping to find out how these bacterias change their swimming activity, as well as identify if other bacteria are exhibiting the same behaviors.

Related information about bacteria's swimming patterns is shown on Drawing Pro's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Bacteria in Science Times.