Figure 5.

Demonstration of fimbrial stiffness's effect on rolling behavior. (A) Increasing fimbrial stiffness (solid line) decreases the cell's ability to roll as compared to the original fimbrial stiffness (long-dashed line). Decreasing stiffness (short-dashed line) has the opposite effect, allowing more rolling at all shears. (B) Stiffer (solid line) and more flexible (short-dashed line) fimbriae rolled faster and slower, respectively, than the native thickness fimbriae (long-dashed line) as a result of the change in the number of bonds (inset). Error bars are mean ± SE.