Crowding limits relative bacterial surface accumulation with density-induced effective heating.

Authors

Yaocai Liu, Rui He, Da Wei, Longfei Li, Mingcheng Yang, Junhua Yuan, Yi Peng

Published in

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 123. Issue 44. Pages e2536051123. Nov 03, 2026. Epub Oct 29, 2026.

Abstract

The accumulation of microswimmers near walls has been studied for decades. While hydrodynamics and single-cell kinematics are well-explored, the role of cell-cell interactions remains understudied. However, in realistic, crowded environments such as the human gut, these interactions can be just as crucial. Here, we demonstrate that they actively weaken bacterial surface accumulation. Analysis of entrapped cell tracks reveals that crowding enhances orientational fluctuations, which increase the effective rotational diffusion and facilitate wall escape. A minimal model shows that this collective effect is equivalent to raising the system's effective temperature with density.

PMID:
42956025
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Oct 2026.

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