Fig. 3: Coupling of bacterial swimmers in an elastic lattice.
a Histogram showing the deviation of edge lengths \(L\) from the mean length value \(\bar{L}\) obtained for active (orange) and heat-killed bacteria (blue). Representative example of n = 10 experiments. Bacteria were encapsulated at an optical density of OD = 0.95, 600 nm. b Standard deviation of the \(L-\bar{L}\) distribution for different values of shape index s for active and heat-killed bacteria. Each datapoint represents an independent experiment (n = 10) c Examples of possible interactions between bacterial swimmers in an elastic lattice. A single compartment contains swimmers (green area), which leads to a vertex displacement (blue arrow) via the contraction of one edge and extension of two edges (dotted lines). When two compartments contain swimmers, the interaction leads to a vertex displacement as indicated by the blue arrow. When all three compartments contain swimmers, the interaction leads to zero displacement of the vertex. d Average individual vertex position displacement as function of vectorial volume fraction of bacteria in the three compartments sharing a vertex. Linear fit of slope 16.4 µm, zero intercept, with coefficient of determination R2 = 0.76. Datapoints from a total of n = 3 experiments, colors show individual experimental repeats. e Cross-correlation between two vertices separated by distance d over the displacement time series. Dashed lines show typical distance between two vertices (1,2,3 from left to right) f Time series of maximum vertex displacement within 60-s segments. Sizes and color of circles are proportional to displacement magnitude. Source data for (a, b, d–f) are provided as Source Data file.
