Influence of Helical Cell Shape on Motility of \textit{Helicobacter Pylori}

Bacteria's body shape plays an important role in motility by effecting chemotaxis, swimming mechanisms, and swimming speed. ~A prime example of this is the bacteria \textit{Helicobacter Pylori; }whose helical shape has long been believed to provide an advantage in penetrating the viscous mucus layer protecting the stomach lining, its niche environment. ~To explore this we have performed bacteria tracking experiments of both wild-type bacteria along with mutants, which have a straight rod shape. A wide distribution of speeds was found. This distribution reflects both a result of temporal variation in speed and different shape morphologies in the bacterial population. Our results show that body shape plays less role in a simple fluid. However, in a more viscous solution the helical shape results in increased swimming speeds. In addition, we use experimentally obtained cell shape measurements to model the hydrodynamic influence of cell shape on swimming speed using resistive force theory. The results agree with the experiment, especially when we fold in the temporal distribution. Interestingly, our results suggest distinct wild-type subpopulations with varying number of half helices can lead to different swimming speeds.