Joshua D. Shrout [email protected] Determining Surface Motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Joshua D. Shrout

[email protected]

Determining Surface Motility of

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Motility affects biofilm formation

•Gram negative rod-shaped bacterium

•Ubiquitous in nature

•Opportunistic human pathogen (affects those with Cystic Fibrosis, skin burns, hospital-acquired infections, and contact lens wearers)

•Model organism for study of bacterial group behavior

Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Is surface motility variable?

Cells do show distinct motility patterns

Conrad, et al. (2011) Biophys.J. 100: 1608-1616.

P. aeruginosa has four surface motility patterns

Conrad, et al. (2011) Biophys.J. 100: 1608-1616.

Cells “walk” vertically upright

Gibiansky., et al. (2010) Science 330: 197.

Upright walking by daughter cells

P. aeruginosa group behavior Type I: Rhamnolipid-independent swarming

rhlAB-mutant swarming

Wild-type swarming

P. aeruginosa group behaviorType II: Rhamnolipid-dependent swarming

Summary and Future work …• P. aeruginosa displays four distinct

surface motility patterns, including upright “walking” that requires type IV pili.

• Walking pattern suggests searching behavior.

• Need to determine relevance of walking to group behavior on surfaces of interest (will start with skin assays in collaboration with Travers Lab).

Skin assay (side view). Travers Laboratory IUSM

Acknowledgements Indiana Clinical and Translation Science Institute-

Young Investigator Basic Science Award Gerard Wong and Wong Lab, UCLA Jeffery Travers and Travers Lab, IUSM Robert Nerenberg and Shaun Lee, Notre Dame Shrout Lab (and friends): Morgen Anyan, Andrew

Courtney, Callan Driscoll, Cameron Harvey, Jessica Hewitt, Nachiket Kamatkar, Dominick Motto, Matthew Sarna, Geliang Song, Ann Staudt, Catherine Stecyk, and Lawrence Wolfe