We present a protocol for bending filamentous bacterial cells attached to a cover-slip surface with an optical trap to measure the cellular bending stiffness.
Wang, S., Arellano-Santoyo, H., Combs, P. A., Shaevitz, J. W. Measuring the Bending Stiffness of Bacterial Cells Using an Optical Trap. J. Vis. Exp. (38), e2012, doi:10.3791/2012 (2010).