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Space Partitioning and Maze Solving by Bacteria

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Bio-inspired Information and Communication Technologies (BICT 2019)

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Abstract

Many bacteria dwell in micro-habitats, e.g., animal or plant tissues, waste matter, and soil. Consequently, bacterial space searching and partitioning is critical to their survival. However, the vast majority of studies regarding the motility of bacteria have been performed in open environments. To fill this gap in knowledge, we studied the behaviour of E. coli K12-wt in microfluidic channels with sub-10 µm dimensions, which present two types of geometries, namely a diamond-like network and a maze. The velocity, average time spent, and distance required to exit the networks, have been calculated to assess the intelligent-like behaviour of bacteria.

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Acknowledgements

The work presented here was financially supported by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under Grant Agreement No. HR0011-16-2-0028.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Faculty of Engineering, McGill University, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C3, Canada

    Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal, Monalisha Nayak, Viola Tokárová, Ondřej Kašpar & Dan V. Nicolau

  2. University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, 166 28, Prague, Czech Republic

    Viola Tokárová & Ondřej Kašpar

Authors
  1. Ayyappasamy Sudalaiyadum Perumal
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  2. Monalisha Nayak
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  3. Viola Tokárová
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  4. Ondřej Kašpar
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  5. Dan V. Nicolau
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dan V. Nicolau .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stefens Institute of Technology USA, Hoboken, NJ, USA

    Adriana Compagnoni

  2. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    William Casey

  3. Cylab, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Yang Cai

  4. New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Bud Mishra

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© 2019 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Perumal, A.S., Nayak, M., Tokárová, V., Kašpar, O., Nicolau, D.V. (2019). Space Partitioning and Maze Solving by Bacteria. In: Compagnoni, A., Casey, W., Cai, Y., Mishra, B. (eds) Bio-inspired Information and Communication Technologies. BICT 2019. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 289. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24202-2_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24202-2_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24201-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24202-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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