{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T19:06:41Z","timestamp":1788894401121,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788825600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788825600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PHY-1734030"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PHY-1734030"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000002","name":"U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01 GM082938"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01 GM082938"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000057","name":"U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of General Medical Sciences","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000057","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001659","name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["570781731"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["570781731"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001659","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"START-Program of the Faculty of Medicine of the RWTH Aachen University"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Commun Biol"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    The swimming motility of the bacterial pathogen\n                    <jats:italic>Vibrio cholerae<\/jats:italic>\n                    is a virulence factor that aids in breaching the mucus layer.\n                    <jats:italic>V. cholerae<\/jats:italic>\n                    has a curved cell shape, and previous work demonstrated that loss of curvature decreases infectivity. Here, we investigate the mechanism by which curvature affects single-cell motility. We compared the chemotactic performance of wild-type curved cells and straight mutants. The two exhibit similar swimming properties in liquid and viscous solutions but differ significantly in mucus-mimicking hydrogels, where curved cells demonstrate an 86% increase in chemotactic drift. Trajectory analysis indicates comparable swimming speeds, but straight mutants experience more frequent stalls, reducing total swimming time. Stalls further reduce chemotactic performance by imposing an average reorientation down the chemical gradient, regardless of cell shape. Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations corroborate these results across intestinal mucus hydrogel stiffnesses and identify an optimal curvature for movement through hydrogel-like meshes, close to the pathogen\u2019s median curvature. These findings highlight cell shape\u2019s role in pathogenicity and the need to study bacterial behaviors under conditions more closely mimicking the host environment.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s42003-026-10883-9","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T17:55:48Z","timestamp":1788890148000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Cell-body curvature reduces stall frequency to enhance Vibrio cholerae swimming and chemotaxis through hydrogels"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Marwan","family":"Malik","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziyang","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andrew G. T.","family":"Pyo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3280-6178","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zemer","family":"Gitai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7384-2821","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ned S.","family":"Wingreen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7491-1224","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marianne","family":"Grognot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"10883_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"611","DOI":"10.1038\/nrmicro1207","volume":"3","author":"SM Butler","year":"2005","unstructured":"Butler, S. M. & Camilli, A. Going against the grain: chemotaxis and infection in Vibrio cholerae. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 3, 611\u2013620 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/nrmicro1207 (2005).","journal-title":"Nat. Rev. Microbiol."},{"key":"10883_CR2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1004787","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1004787","volume":"11","author":"S Almagro-Moreno","year":"2015","unstructured":"Almagro-Moreno, S., Pruss, K. & Taylor, R. K. Intestinal colonization dynamics of Vibrio cholerae. PLOS Pathog. 11, e1004787 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.ppat.1004787 (2015).","journal-title":"PLOS Pathog."},{"key":"10883_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1004405","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.ppat.1004405","volume":"10","author":"YA Millet","year":"2014","unstructured":"Millet, Y. A., Alvarez, D., Ringgaard, S., von Andrian, U. H., Davis, B. M. & Waldor, M. K. Insights into vibrio cholerae intestinal colonization from monitoring fluorescently labeled bacteria. PLoS Pathog. 10, e1004405 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.ppat.1004405 (2014).","journal-title":"PLoS Pathog."},{"key":"10883_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"434","DOI":"10.3390\/biom15030434","volume":"15","author":"F Omori","year":"2025","unstructured":"Omori, F., Tajima, H., Asaoka, S., Nishiyama, S., Sowa, Y. & Kawagishi, I. Chemotaxis and related signaling systems in vibrio cholerae. Biomolecules 15, 434 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/biom15030434 (2025).","journal-title":"Biomolecules"},{"key":"10883_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"910","DOI":"10.1038\/s41564-021-00924-w","volume":"6","author":"NR Martin","year":"2021","unstructured":"Martin, N. R., Blackman, E., Bratton, B. P., Chase, K. J., Bartlett, T. M. & Gitai, Z. CrvA and CrvB form a curvature-inducing module sufficient to induce cell-shape complexity in Gram-negative bacteria. Nat. Microbiol. 6, 910\u2013920 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41564-021-00924-w (2021).","journal-title":"Nat. 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USA 117, 29046\u201329054 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2010199117 (2020).","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"10883_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"669","DOI":"10.1038\/s42003-021-02190-2","volume":"4","author":"M Grognot","year":"2021","unstructured":"Grognot, M. & Taute, K. M. A multiscale 3D chemotaxis assay reveals bacterial navigation mechanisms. Commun. Biol. 4, 669 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s42003-021-02190-2 (2021).","journal-title":"Commun. Biol."},{"key":"10883_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2301873120","volume":"120","author":"M Grognot","year":"2023","unstructured":"Grognot, M., Nam, J. W., Elson, L. E. & Taute, K. M. Physiological adaptation in flagellar architecture improves Vibrio alginolyticus chemotaxis in complex environments. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 120, e2301873120. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2301873120 (2023).","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 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J., Chamberlain, M., Poonja, A., Mumford, K. G., Wallace, S. & Weber, K. P. Peaks, pores, and dragon eggs: Uncovering and quantifying the heterogeneity of treatment wetland biofilm matrices. Sci. Total Environ. 855, 158857. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2022.158857 (2023).","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"10883_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.1016\/0092-8674(88)90197-3","volume":"54","author":"L McCarter","year":"1988","unstructured":"McCarter, L., Hilmen, M. & Silverman, M. Flagellar dynamometer controls swarmer cell differentiation of V. parahaemolyticus. Cell 54, 345\u2013351 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/0092-8674(88)90197-3 (1988).","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"10883_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"173","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1348-0421.1985.tb00817.x","volume":"29","author":"S Shinoda","year":"1985","unstructured":"Shinoda, S., Nakahara, N., Uchida, E. & Hiraga, M. 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RWTH Publications https:\/\/doi.org\/10.18154\/RWTH-2025-05690 (2026).","journal-title":"RWTH Publications"},{"key":"10883_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cpc.2021.108171","volume":"271","author":"AP Thompson","year":"2022","unstructured":"Thompson, A. P., Aktulga, H. M., Berger, R., Bolintineanu, D. S., Brown, W. M., Crozier, P. S., In \u2019T Veld, P. J., Kohlmeyer, A., Moore, S. G., Nguyen, T. D. et al. LAMMPS - a flexible simulation tool for particle-based materials modeling at the atomic, meso, and continuum scales. Comput. Phys. Commun. 271, 108171. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cpc.2021.108171 (2022).","journal-title":"Comput. Phys. Commun."},{"key":"10883_CR26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0247727","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0247727","volume":"16","author":"S Shahab","year":"2021","unstructured":"Shahab, S., Kasra, M. & Dolatshahi-Pirouz, A. Design and construction of a novel measurement device for mechanical characterization of hydrogels: A case study. PLoS ONE 16, e0247727 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0247727 (2021).","journal-title":"PLoS ONE"}],"container-title":["Communications Biology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s42003-026-10883-9","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s42003-026-10883-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s42003-026-10883-9.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T18:08:48Z","timestamp":1788890928000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s42003-026-10883-9"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,12]]}},"alternative-id":["10883"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s42003-026-10883-9","relation":{},"ISSN":["2399-3642"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2399-3642","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"assertion":[{"value":"17 February 2026","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"24 August 2026","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"8 September 2026","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","label":"Competing interests","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics"}}],"article-number":"1180"}}