Predicting Escherichia coli's chemotactic drift under exponential gradient

Samanta, S., Layek, R., Kar, S. , Raj, M. K., Mukhopadhyay, S. and Chakraborty, S. (2017) Predicting Escherichia coli's chemotactic drift under exponential gradient. Physical Review E, 96(3), 032409. (doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.96.032409)

Abstract

Bacterial species are known to show chemotaxis, i.e., the directed motions in the presence of certain chemicals, whereas the motion is random in the absence of those chemicals. The bacteria modulate their run time to induce chemotactic drift towards the attractant chemicals and away from the repellent chemicals. However, the existing theoretical knowledge does not exhibit a proper match with experimental validation, and hence there is a need for developing alternate models and validating experimentally. In this paper a more robust theoretical model is proposed to investigate chemotactic drift of peritrichous Escherichia coli under an exponential nutrient gradient. An exponential gradient is used to understand the steady state behavior of drift because of the logarithmic functionality of the chemosensory receptors. Our theoretical estimations are validated through the experimentation and simulation results. Thus, the developed model successfully delineates the run time, run trajectory, and drift velocity as measured from the experiments.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kar, Dr Shantimoy
• Authors: Samanta, S., Layek, R., Kar, S., Raj, M. K., Mukhopadhyay, S., and Chakraborty, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Biomedical Engineering
• Journal Name: Physical Review E
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• ISSN: 2470-0045
• ISSN (Online): 2470-0053
• Published Online: 11 September 2017
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2017 American Physical Society
• First Published: First published in Physical Review E 96(3):032409
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy