Investigation of Synechocystis sp. CPCC 534 Motility during Different Stages of the Growth Period in Active Fluids

International audienceThe motility behavior of suspended microorganisms plays an essential role in the properties of active fluids. Despite the important progress in our understanding of microorganisms’ motility in recent years, there are still several open questions about the dynamics of cell motility in active suspensions. Of special interest is the relationship between cell motility and age. In this study, cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. CPCC 534 was used as the model microorganism, and the cell trajectories were tracked for 78 days during the cell growth period. Results showed that the length of cell trajectories had substantially increased from the exponential growth phase to the stationary phase and had declined at the end of the stationary phase. Similar trends were observed for the cells’ mean squared displacement (MSD), the time-dependent diffusion coefficient of cell suspensions, and the cell displacement probability density function (PDF). These results suggest that the cellular age of microorganisms has a significant effect on various metrics of cell motility and, therefore, can impact the transport properties of active suspensions.