Maximal swimming speed

Range ~600 μm/s
Organism Sulfur bacterium Thiovulum majus
Reference Herzog & Wirth, 2012. Swimming behavior of selected species of Archaea, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78(6):1670-674 p.1671 right column 4th paragraphPubMed ID22247169
Primary Source Fenchel T. 1994. Motility and chemosensory behavior of the sulfur bacterium Thiovulum majus. Microbiology 140: 3109 –3116.
Method (Primary source p.3110 right column 2nd paragraph:) "The distribution and motility of the bacteria were recorded on a video tape during the O2-measurements. A CCD-camera (Panasonic) mounted on a dissection microscope connected to a recorder (Panasonic AG 6200) and a monitor was used." "These and all other experiments were carried out at room temperature (˜20°C)."
Comments "The maximum speed of the sulfur bacterium Thiovulum majus was reported to be approximately 600 µm/s, but because of its size of ~7µm, this is equivalent to ca. 85 bps (primary source). In contrast, the bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus swims at approximately 100µm/s which, due to its small size, is equivalent to a maximum of approximately 150 bps (primary source)." bps=body lengths per sec. Cell diameters ranged between 5 and 10µm (mean 7µm)
Entered by Uri M
ID 107652