Reply to Kovács et al.: Surfing or sliding: The act of naming and its implications
Résumé
Kovács et al. (1) have greatly contributed to the characterization of “sliding” (2⇓–4), a flagella-independent, “passive type of [bacterial] movement, [...] powered by the pushing force of dividing cells and additional factors facilitating the expansion over surfaces” (2). They suggest that bacterial surfing (5) should be described by the same name to “facilitate the understanding between the biophysics and the microbiology communities.”
Providing a clear and systematic classification of bacterial modes of motility is indeed a common objective of both communities, but one still has to agree on the best way to proceed. Bacteria possess a surprisingly rich toolbox to …