Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom.
Collège de France, 11 place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005 Paris, France.
Phys Rev Lett. 2022 May 20;128(20):208101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.208101.
To rotate continuously without jamming, the flagellar filaments of bacteria need to be locked in phase. While several models have been proposed for eukaryotic flagella, the synchronization of bacterial flagella is less well understood. Starting from a reduced model of flexible and hydrodynamically coupled bacterial flagella, we rigorously coarse grain the equations of motion using the method of multiple scales, and hence show that bacterial flagella generically synchronize to zero phase difference via an elastohydrodynamic mechanism. Remarkably, the far-field rate of synchronization is maximized at an intermediate value of elastic compliance, with surprising implications for bacteria.
为了实现连续旋转而不卡顿，细菌的鞭毛丝需要锁定在相位上。虽然已经提出了几种真核生物鞭毛的模型，但细菌鞭毛的同步性还不太清楚。本文从一个简化的、柔性的和水动力耦合的细菌鞭毛模型出发，使用多尺度方法严格地粗粒化运动方程，从而表明细菌鞭毛通常通过弹性流体动力学机制同步到零相位差。值得注意的是，在弹性顺应性的中间值处，同步的远场速率达到最大值，这对细菌具有惊人的影响。
