COMPUTER-ASSISTED VIDEO MOTION ANALYSIS - A POWERFUL TECHNIQUE FOR INVESTIGATING MOTILITY AND CHEMOTAXIS

Motility and chemotaxis play vital roles in the ecology of bacterial p opulations. Most methods used for studying these behaviors are quite t ime consuming and do not allow assessment of swimming and chemotactic behavior of individual cells. Computer-assisted video motion analysis (CAVMA) offers a precise, efficient alternative to these methods. CAVM A digitizes videomicroscope recordings, allowing estimation of motilit y parameters such as speed, rate of change in direction and net to gro ss displacement ratio. By examining the relationships between these pa rameters one can determine the nature of the response of an organism t o a stimulus and quantify changes in behavior rapidly and accurately.