Types of Motility

Amoeboid movement is the most common mode of locomotion in eukaryotic cells. It is a crawling-like type of movement accomplished by protrusion of cytoplasm of the cell involving the formation of pseudopodia ("false feet") and posterior uropods.

A flagellum is a lash-like appendage that protrudes from the cell body of certain bacterial and eukaryotic cells. The primary role of the flagellum is locomotion, but it also often has function as a sensory organelle, being sensitive to chemicals and temperatures outside the cell. The similar structure in the archaea functions in the same way but is structurally different and has been termed the archaellum. Flagella are organelles defined by function rather than structure. Flagella vary greatly.

Gliding motility is a type of flagella-independent translocation that allows the microorganism to glide smoothly along a surface without the aid of propulsive organelles on the outer membrane.

Motility is the ability of an organism to move independently, using metabolic energy. This is in contrast to mobility, which describes the ability of an object to be moved. Motility is genetically determined, but may be affected by environmental factors.

Motility is spontaneous movement. One example is the automatic stomach contractions that move the food content along from the stomach into the intestines.

The digestive tract includes the esophagus (or food tube), stomach, small intestine/bowel, and colon or large intestine/bowel. It begins at the mouth and ends at the anus. Gut motility is the term given to the stretching and contractions of the muscles in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Sperm motility refers to how well the sperm in a given semen sample are moving and it is one of the parameters looked at in a semen analysis. A s long as at least 40% of the sperm in a sample are moving, this is considered normal sperm motility.

Swarming motility is a rapid (2–10 μm/s) and coordinated translocation of a bacterial population across solid or semi-solid surfaces, and is an example of bacterial multicellularity and swarm behaviour.