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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation

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Published on: November 9, 2017

Phenomenological approach to eukaryotic chemotactic efficiency.

Bo Hu¹, Danny Fuller, William F Loomis

¹Department of Physics and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0374, USA.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

|April 7, 2010

Summary

Cell sensing of chemical trails is limited by internal noise and random movement. This study introduces a new model incorporating both factors to better predict cell direction, matching experimental data for Dictyostelium amoeba.

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Published on: January 31, 2020

Area of Science:

Cellular biology
Biophysics
Theoretical biology

Background:

Eukaryotic cells can detect minute chemical gradients across diverse concentration ranges.
Stochastic receptor occupancy is a known factor limiting gradient sensing precision.
The impact of spontaneous motility fluctuations on chemotaxis remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a phenomenological model that integrates motility fluctuations with receptor noise in eukaryotic chemotaxis.
To predict the directional statistics of cell movement under noisy chemical gradient conditions.
To provide a theoretical framework that explains recent experimental observations in cell sensing.

Main Methods:

Development of an Itô diffusion equation incorporating direction-dependent multiplicative noise.
Analytical study of the proposed diffusion equation to derive directional statistics.
Comparison of model predictions with experimental data from Dictyostelium chemotaxis experiments.

Main Results:

The model successfully incorporates both receptor noise and spontaneous motility fluctuations.
The derived directional statistics align with experimental findings for eukaryotic chemotaxis.
The approach offers a unified explanation for noise limitations in gradient sensing.

Conclusions:

Spontaneous motility fluctuations are a significant factor influencing the limits of eukaryotic gradient sensing.
The developed theoretical framework provides a robust explanation for observed chemotaxis behaviors.
This work advances our understanding of how cells navigate chemical landscapes in the presence of biological noise.