Modeling of lophotrichous bacteria reveals key factors for swimming reorientation

Lophotrichous bacteria swim through fluid by rotating their flagellar bundle extended collectively from one pole of the cell body. Cells experience modes of motility such as push, pull, and wrapping, accompanied by pauses of motor rotation in between. We present a mathematical model of a lophotrichous bacterium and investigate the hydrodynamic interaction of cells to understand their swimming mechanism. We classify the swimming modes which vary depending on the bending modulus of the hook and the magnitude of applied torques on the motor. Given the hook’s bending modulus, we find that there exist corresponding critical thresholds of the magnitude of applied torques that separate wrapping from pull in CW motor rotation, and overwhirling from push in CCW motor rotation, respectively. We also investigate reoriented directions of cells in three-dimensional perspectives as the cell experiences different series of swimming modes. Our simulations show that the transition from a wrapping mode to a push mode and pauses in between are key factors to determine a new path and that the reoriented direction depends upon the start time and duration of the pauses. It is also shown that the wrapping mode may help a cell to escape from the region where the cell is trapped near a wall.