Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic micro-organisms colonizing all aquatic and terrestrial environments. The motility of such living micro-organisms should make their diffusion distinct from typical Brownian motion. This diffusion can be investigated in terms of global behavior (Fickian or not) and in terms of displacement probabilities, which provide more detail about the motility process. Using cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 as the model micro-organism, we carry out time-lapse video microscopy to track and analyze the bacteria’s trajectories, from which we compute the mean-squared displacement (MSD) and the distribution function of displacement probabilities.
We find that the motility of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is intermittent: high-motility “run” phases are separated by low-motility “tumble” phases corresponding to trapped states. However, this intermittent motility leads to a Fickian diffusive behavior, as shown by the evolution of the MSD with time.
