Mechanical forces in bacterial pathogenesis: Sensing, tropism, and intervention
Yixin Jiang, Gaixin Xu, Haobo Liang, Yuying Wang, Guowen Liu, Xinyuan Pan, Lan Yang, Hongxia Liu, Youwen Liu, Yanfang Ren, Xiaolin Wang, Qiusheng Shi · 2026
Read Mechanical forces in bacterial pathogenesis: Sensing, tropism, and intervention by Yixin Jiang, Gaixin Xu, Haobo Liang, Yuying Wang, Guowen Liu, Xinyuan Pan, Lan Yang, Hongxia Liu, Youwen Liu, Yanfang Ren, Xiaolin Wang, Qiusheng Shi (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13418716.txt.
Description
Yixin Jiang and co-authors argue that physical forces are active drivers of bacterial virulence, in a 2026 review. Bacteria in the body face shear from fluids, tight confinement, and tissues of varying stiffness. Sensors in their envelopes, tails, and hairs translate those forces into chemical signals that reprogram behaviour, from sticking under flow to building biofilms.
Force landscapes differ by tissue, which may explain why strains favour certain organs better than chemistry alone can. The authors propose attacking force sensing nodes or exploiting biofilm mechanical weak points. Such physical disruption could sidestep antibiotic resistance rather than fight it chemically.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yixin Jiang, Gaixin Xu, Haobo Liang, Yuying Wang, Guowen Liu, Xinyuan Pan, Lan Yang, Hongxia Liu, Youwen Liu, Yanfang Ren, Xiaolin Wang, Qiusheng Shi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 74 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |