A bacterium anchors the tips of its pili. As a pilus on one side of the bacterium depolymerizes or retracts, pili on the opposing side become taut or streched. As the retracting pilus detaches from the surface, the other taut or streched pili rapidly slingshot the bacterium to the left.

Flash animation illustrating Pili-Induced "Slingshotting" of a Bacterium.swf by Gary E. Kaiser, Ph.D.
Professor of Microbiology, The Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/index.html.

Last updated: August, 2018
Please send comments and inquiries to Dr. Gary Kaiser