Hitchhiking Motility of Involves the Interaction Between Its Wall Teichoic Acids and Lipopolysaccharide of

, which lacks pili and flagella, is nonmotile. However, it hitchhikes motile bacteria, such as , to migrate in the environment. This study demonstrated that the hitchhiking motility of SA113 was reduced after the , which encodes an enzyme for wall teichoic acids (WTA) synthesis, was deleted. The hitchhiking motility was restored after the mutation was complemented by transforming a plasmid expressing TagO into the mutant. We also showed that adding purified lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to a culture that contains SA113 and PAO1, reduced the movement of , showing that WTA and LPS are involved in the hitchhiking motility of . This study also found that promoted the movement of in the digestive tract of and in mice. In conclusion, this study reveals how hitchhikes for translocation in an ecosystem. The results from this study improve our understanding on how a nonmotile pathogen moves in the environment and spreads in animals.