Swimming motility in the gut microbiota is diverse and increased in inflammation.

Authors

Chiotelli, M. D., Pauvert, C., Treichel, N. S., Stange, E.-L., Zhang, K., Dupont, A., Seeger, A., Kanagaraj, N. K., Lobo Gomes, A., Reissing, J., Pes, J., Torow, N., Bruns, T., Guldiken, N., Schippers, A., Izcue, A., Clavel, T., Grognot, M.

Abstract

This study presents a direct, functional analysis of gut bacterial motility in health and inflammation. Using phase contrast microscopy and high-throughput 3D tracking, motile bacteria were quantified and their swimming behaviours characterised in fresh gut content from healthy and inflamed mouse models. In health, less than 3% of gut bacteria were motile, exhibiting diverse swimming patterns rather than the run-tumble behaviour typical of model gut species. In all five inflammation models, the motile fraction increased 3.8- to 102-fold, correlating with elevated Lipocalin-2 where measured. Increased motility arose from both enrichment of motile taxa and rapid environmental modulation of motility expression. In vitro assays with human-derived isolates confirmed motility across several phyla, with variability down to strain level, and identified oxygen and viscosity as key modulators. These findings support increased motility as a hallmark of the inflamed gut and challenge established assumptions about gut bacterial motility.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 21 Aug 2026.

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