Department of Chemical &Environmental Engineering, Yale University, 10 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT, USA.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 5;6:29369. doi: 10.1038/srep29369.
Biological micro-motors (microorganisms) have potential applications in energy utilization and nanotechnology. However, harnessing the power generated by such motors to execute desired work is extremely difficult. Here, we employ the power of motile bacteria to transport small, large, and giant unilamellar vesicles (SUVs, LUVs, and GUVs). Furthermore, we demonstrate bacteria-bilayer interactions by probing glycolipids inside the model membrane scaffold. Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) spectroscopic and microscopic methods were utilized for understanding these interactions. We found that motile bacteria could successfully propel SUVs and LUVs with a velocity of 28 μm s(-1) and 13 μm s(-1), respectively. GUVs, however, displayed Brownian motion and could not be propelled by attached bacteria. Bacterial velocity decreased with the larger loaded cargo, which agrees with our calculations of loaded bacteria swimming at low Reynolds number.
生物微型马达（微生物）在能源利用和纳米技术方面具有潜在的应用。然而，利用这些马达产生的动力来执行所需的工作是极其困难的。在这里，我们利用运动细菌的力量来运输小、大、巨型单层囊泡（SUVs、LUVs 和 GUVs）。此外，我们通过探测模型膜支架内的糖脂来证明细菌双层相互作用。荧光共振能量转移（FRET）光谱和显微镜方法用于理解这些相互作用。我们发现，运动细菌可以成功地以 28 μm/s 的速度推动 SUVs 和 LUVs，以 13 μm/s 的速度推动 LUVs。然而，GUVs 表现出布朗运动，不能被附着的细菌推动。细菌的速度随着负载货物的增加而降低，这与我们对低雷诺数下负载细菌游动的计算结果一致。
