This page contains the movies associated with our paper

Active depinning of bacterial drops: the collective surfing of Bacillus subtilis

Marc Hennes, Julien Tailleur, Gaëlle Charron, Adrian Daerr, PNAS 114(23) , 5958-5963

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SM1

Movie of a colony surfing event of a 2µl drop (OD=0.27) on a 1° slope (corresponding to main article figure 1). Time is indicated in hours:minutes, the time interval between two frames is 5min.

SM2

Movie showing induced drop sliding of a 10µl supernatant drop (right) contaminated by a dendrite of swarming bacteria from a 1µl drop of bacteria (OD = 1.5, left) at t = 10h. The inclination angle is 1°. See main article figure 3 for details. Time is indicated in hours:minutes, the time interval between two frames is 5min.

SM3

Movie showing induced drop sliding of a 50µl water drop (left) contaminated by a dendrite of swarming bacteria from a 30µl drop of bacteria (right) at t = 110min. Here, to reduce initial drop spreading, the initial amount of surfactin present in the drop was minimised through the following procedure: the bacterial suspension was grown to OD = 1.5 and centrifuged; the supernatant was removed and the bacteria resuspended in fresh nutrients (final OD = 1.5) before deposition. The inclination angle is 1°. See supplementary figure SF1 for details. Time is indicated in hours:minutes, the time interval between two frames is 2.5min.

SM4

Movie showing how a 30µl water drop (left) starts to slide after being reached by the surfactin ring emitted by a 30µl drop of non-motile bacteria (right). As for movie~SM3, to reduce initial drop spreading, the initial amount of surfactin present in the drop was minimised through the following procedure: the bacterial suspension was grown to OD = 1.5 and centrifuged; the supernatant was removed and the bacteria resuspended in fresh nutrients (final OD = 1.5) before deposition. See supplementary figure~SF2 for details. Time is indicated in hours:minutes, the time interval between two frames is 2.5min.

SM5

Movie showing the evolution of a 2µl drop of commercial surfactin solution (0.5g/l) on the gel surface. As for bacterial suspensions, we observe a volume increase, and the outward propagation of a surfactin ring. The wetting hysteresis is reduced to Δcos θ = cos θR - cos θA = 0.003 at the onset of motion. As opposed to the drops of bacterial suspension the drop moves only through a finite distance, probably because sustained surfactin production is required to continuously modify the wetting properties of the gel ahead of the sliding drop. Time is indicated in hours:minutes, the time interval between two frames is 5min.

Last modified: 21 Nov 2020