Fig. 3: Capture efficiency of P. aeruginosa depends on pillar dimension and flow velocity.

a Experimental capture efficiency, η_C^exp, of motile P. aeruginosa PA14 wt cells, as a function of the rescaled flow velocity U/V, for pillars of diameter 50 µm (blue circles), 100 µm (red squares) and 200 µm (black triangles), measured after 5 h from the start of the experiment. The dashed curve shows the scaling \(\eta _{\mathrm{C}}^{{\mathrm{exp}}}\sim (U/V)^{ - 1}\). b Capture efficiency, η_C^mod, as a function of U/V, obtained from the model for the same pillar diameters as in (a). c Experimental capture efficiency, η_C^exp, as a function of the Péclet number, Pe, for motile PA14 wt (filled symbols) and nonmotile (PA14 flgE, open symbols with a cross; PA14 motB, open symbols) cells, for pillars of different diameters. d Capture efficiency, η_C^mod, as a function of the Pe, obtained from the model for different pillar diameters, in the case of motile (filled symbols) and nonmotile (open symbols) cells. Vertical dotted lines in c and d represent the Pe numbers corresponding to U/V = 20, calculated for each pillar dimension. Error bars correspond to the standard error of the mean.