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Movement of bacteria in the soil and the rhizosphere

Summary

Bacteria in soil move in many different ways to find food and avoid danger. Some swim using tiny whip-like flagella, others slide across surfaces, and many hitch rides on fungi or get transported by tiny predatory organisms. The ways bacteria move depend heavily on soil moisture, pore structure, and interactions with other microorganisms. This movement affects nutrient cycling and soil productivity, making it important for agriculture and ecosystem health.

Background

Soil and rhizosphere are physicochemically heterogeneous environments hosting diverse macro- and microorganisms that influence soil productivity. Bacterial dispersal in these environments has been less characterized than that of larger organisms due to complexity and challenges in quantification. Understanding bacterial movement is critical for soil ecosystem services including nutrient cycling and microbial community function.

Objective

This minireview focuses on mechanisms of bacterial movement in soil and rhizosphere that do not depend on passive physical factors such as rainfall. The review examines active bacterial motility through flagella and pili, as well as passive transport mediated by other organisms and emerging motility forms from microbe-microbe interactions.

Results

Multiple mechanisms of bacterial movement are identified, with swimming bacteria achieving 20-100 μm/s and swarming bacteria 0.1-10 μm/s. Fungal highways represent the most promising long-distance dispersal mechanism, while protist and nematode-mediated transport contributes to bacterial distribution. Emerging motility behaviors arise from microbe-microbe interactions under stress conditions typical of soil environments.

Conclusion

Limited information exists on the actual contribution of different bacterial dispersal mechanisms to soil microbiome composition and function. Future research using high-resolution mapping and real-time analytical methods is needed to quantitatively evaluate various dispersal modes and their ecological impact on soil bacterial communities and ecosystem services.
  • Published in:Applied and Environmental Microbiology,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: PMID: 40938096, DOI: 10.1128/aem.00246-25
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