| 项目编号: | 1706511
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| 项目名称: | Shape, wobble, and roll: adaptation of bacterial morphology to mechanical environments |
| 作者: | Bin Liu
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| 承担单位: | University of California - Merced
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| 批准年: | 2017
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| 开始日期: | 2017-09-01
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| 结束日期: | 2020-08-31
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| 资助金额: | 310622
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| 资助来源: | US-NSF
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| 项目类别: | Standard Grant
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| 国家: | US
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| 语种: | 英语
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| 特色学科分类: | Engineering - Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
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| 英文关键词: | fluid environment
; living environment
; bacterial morphology
; shape
; work
; environmental effect
; pi
; selective bacterial morphology
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| 英文摘要: | Bacteria have consistent sizes and shapes that are linked to the nature of their living environments. Cocci (with spherical shapes) and bacilli (with rod-like shapes) are generally found as clusters in soil and mammalian gastrointestinal tract, while spiral-shaped bacteria are known for their ability to move efficiently through dense media. The aim of this work is to elucidate how shape and size determine the adaptation of a bacterial strain to an environment with specified rheological properties. This work is facilitated by an automated tracking microscope that resolves the shape and motion of free-living microorganisms in 3D. The project will pursue a purely mechanical approach in examining the extent to which bacterial morphology is an indicator of cell fitness and virulence. This study also aims to be a guide to the design of robotic micro-scale swimmers that need to move efficiently through complex fluid media in order to deliver drugs or kill pathogenic cells in a timely manner. The innovation of the automated microscope will contribute to an interactive educational program at a local high school where high school students will be taught how to use a 3D printer to design and optimize experimental implements.
This project will develop a framework that maps the selective bacterial morphology to the specific rheological properties of the living habitats. The proposed study focuses on answering the following questions: how the cell body of a microorganism contributes to its swimming motility; how different cell shapes produce marked rheological effects; and whether these environmental effects can be utilized to manipulate cell shapes. The morphology of an individual cell and its three-dimensional movements will be measured under an automated tracking microscope. The PI will design and create gradients of rheological features for each individual bacterium using microfluidic devices fabricated through photolithography. Combined with the tracking microscopy, the PI will study the direct impact of non-Newtonian features of the surrounding media on the motion of individual cells. The PI will also create microfluidic devices to introduce temporal-dependent "selective" pressures, and aim to isolate phenotypes preferred by the fluid environment. Such devices can be used to directly control the phenotypic expressions of live biological systems and will shed light on how phenotype variations allow the same species to adapt to various living habitats. Ultimately, this work aims at creating new approaches for controlling the activities and functions of microorganisms through the hydrodynamic properties of its fluid environment. It will also guide future design of micro-scale robots for medical and industrial applications. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/89219
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| Appears in Collections: | 全球变化的国际研究计划
科学计划与规划
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| Recommended Citation: | |
Bin Liu. Shape, wobble, and roll: adaptation of bacterial morphology to mechanical environments. 2017-01-01.
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