Pivot Point Infection Control 102.2 Practice Test

Flagella are microscopic structures with whiplike tails used for movement. They act like tiny propellers, rotating to push the cell through liquid, which lets many bacteria swim toward nutrients or away from danger. Flagella are typically longer and fewer in number than other motility structures, unlike cilia, which are numerous and shorter and move in coordinated waves to propel cells or move fluids. Pili are hairlike appendages mainly for attachment to surfaces or for genetic transfer, not for locomotion, and spores are dormant survival forms, not used for movement.