CELLULAR

SPEEDOMETER

Submitted by
Rajat Tamang
2nd Semester
Year:2019
 INTRODUCTION
 Pseudomonas aeruginosa
 Bacteria with the built-in speedometer
 A ubiquitous pathogen.

 Researchers have discovered that pseudomonas bacteria can

detect the speed (shear rate) of flow regardless of the force.
 ABOUT THE BACTERIA
Scientific classification
Domain:Bacteria
Phylum:Proteobacteria
Class:Gammaproteobacteria
Order:Pseudomonadales
Family:Pseudomonadaceae
Genus:Pseudomonas
Species:P. aeruginosa

Common encapsulated, Gram-negative, rod shaped bacterium.

Found in and on bodies, in streams of water, in soil, and
throughout hospitals.
 Multidrug resistant pathogen recognized for its ubiquity.
 BACTERIA AS A FLOW
SENSOR
 Set of genes called “fro” for"flow-regulated operon.“
 "Fro's response is not just an on-off switch; it's actually tuned to the
speed.”
 They then bioengineered a connection between fro and a gene that
causes Pseudomonas to glow, the faster the flow, the brighter the glow.
 The researchers did not measure speed in traditional miles per hour units,
but instead measured "shear rate," the rate at which adjacent layers of
fluid pass one another. That is measured in distance-less "per-second"
units.

6Q Q= flow rate
Shear rate =
wh2 W= channels width
h= channels height
 APPLICATION
i. RNA –sequencing library preparation and data analysis.
ii. Fabrication of microfluidic devices.
iii. Shear rate and shear force calculation.

6Q
Shear rate =
wh2

Q= flow rate
w= channels width
h= channels height
iv. Phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy.
v. Quantification of fro expression.
vi. Quantification of ficoll viscoity.
 CONCLUSION
• The recent studies found that some scientists from Princeton University
found the new characters of the bacterium that acts as a “SPEEDOMETER”.
• Previously there are many researches done on bacteria and the
information from the researches had been successfully implemented to
overcome various problems of man kind.
• But this particular researches is very interesting and informative and it will
surely helps in solving future problems.
 REFERENCE
• Journal reference
– Joseph E. Sanfilippo, Alexander Lorestani, Matthias D. Koch, Benjamin P. Bratton, Albert
Siryaporn, Howard A. Stone and Zemer Gitai. Microfluidic-based transcriptomics reveal
force-independent bacterial rheosensing. Nature Microbiology, 2019
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-019-0455-0
– Hansen, C. E., Qiu, Y., McCarty, O. J. T. & Lam, W. A. Platelet mechanotransduction. Annu.
Rev. Biomed. Eng. 20, 253–275 (2018)
– Vollrath, M. A., Kwan, K. Y. & Corey, D. P. The micromachinery of mechanotransduction in
hair cells. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 30, 339–365 (2007).
• Website reference
– Scince daily.com
THANK YOU