Figure 3.

Adhesion dynamics on glass of wild-type PA14 as a function of shear stress. (A) Characteristic residence time τ, obtained by taking into account only bacteria detected on two or more successive images, as a function of wall shear stress. The value τ increases approximately linearly up to a critical value of the shear rate, then decreases (inset). Each point corresponds to an independent experiment, for which the shear was varied by changing the flow rate or the thickness of the channel. Error bars result from the fit of f(t) with 99% confidence bounds. (B) Fraction of strongly adhering bacteria, i.e., bacteria detected on two or more successive images, as a function of shear stress. (C) Fraction of visibly motile bacteria among adhering bacteria as a function of shear stress. Data was collected from 11 different sets of experiments, with a maximum of 2–3 measurements carried out in a given microfluidic device.