Eppur si muove: many water column bacteria are motile

AME Aquatic Microbial Ecology Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials AME 24:197-201 (2001) - doi:10.3354/ame024197 Eppur si muove: many water column bacteria are motile Tom Fenchel* Marine Biological Laboratory (University of Copenhagen), Strandpromenaden 5, 3000 Helsingør, Denmark *E-mail: tfenchel@zi.ku.dk ABSTRACT: Models of chemosensory behaviour and microscale patchiness in the water column often assume that most or all suspended bacteria are motile. Yet direct observations on fresh seawater samples seem to indicate that only a few percent of suspended bacteria swim. Consequently, most experimental studies on the role of bacterial chemotaxis in the water column depend on pure strains of bacteria or on incubations enriched with organic substrates. Here it is shown that a large fraction (typically >20%) of the bacteria (in terms of direct counts) are, in fact, motile and show chemosensory behaviour. The discrepancy is due to the tendency of motile bacteria to attach rapidly to solid surfaces; in microscope preparations that are suited for observation of μm-sized particles most motile cells will become attached within a few seconds. KEY WORDS: Bacterial motility · Chemotaxis · Plankton bacteria Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AME Vol. 24, No. 2. Online publication date: May 30, 2001 Print ISSN: 0948-3055; Online ISSN: 1616-1564 Copyright © 2001 Inter-Research.