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Chemotaxis in E. coli

Chemotaxis in Escherichia coli is a sensory-driven motility mechanism that enables bacteria to navigate chemical gradients, moving toward beneficial environments while avoiding harmful conditions. This process relies on a signal transduction system integrating external chemical cues with flagellar motor control.Chemoreceptors and Signal DetectionE. coli detects chemical gradients through methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs), which are membrane-bound chemoreceptors that sense attractants...
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Cells can detect chemical cues in their environment and reorganize the cytoskeleton to migrate toward them or away from them. This directional migration, called chemotaxis, is essential during embryogenesis and development, immune response, tissue repair and regeneration, and reproduction. These chemical cues can either attract or repel the cell's movement. For example, axon development is determined by a combination of chemoattractants and chemorepellents that direct the growing axon towards...
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Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation
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Published on: November 9, 2017

External and internal constraints on eukaryotic chemotaxis.

Danny Fuller1, Wen Chen, Micha Adler

  • 1Cell and Developmental Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, Department of Physics, and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|May 12, 2010
PubMed
Summary

Cellular chemotaxis, guided cell movement, is limited by external factors in shallow chemical gradients. For steeper gradients, internal cell processing becomes suboptimal, impacting directional accuracy.

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Last Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation
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Published on: November 9, 2017

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Imaging G Protein-coupled Receptor-mediated Chemotaxis and its Signaling Events in Neutrophil-like HL60 Cells
08:24

Imaging G Protein-coupled Receptor-mediated Chemotaxis and its Signaling Events in Neutrophil-like HL60 Cells

Published on: September 14, 2016

Area of Science:

  • Cell Biology
  • Biophysics
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Chemotaxis is crucial for biological processes like cancer, wound healing, and embryogenesis.
  • Cells can detect subtle chemical gradients, but the limiting factors are not fully understood.
  • Understanding chemotaxis limits is key to understanding cell behavior in various physiological and pathological conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the factors limiting chemotactic ability in Dictyostelium cells.
  • To determine the role of gradient steepness and local concentration in chemotaxis.
  • To quantify information flow and loss during chemotaxis using information theory.

Main Methods:

  • Studied Dictyostelium cell response to exponential cAMP gradients of varying steepness and concentration.
  • Applied information theory to calculate mutual information between gradients, receptor distribution, and cell motility.
  • Compared intracellular information processing with ligand-receptor binding predictions.

Main Results:

  • Dictyostelium cells' chemotactic response depends on both gradient steepness and local concentration.
  • For shallow gradients (<5% difference) and low concentrations (<10 nM), external noise from finite receptors limits chemotaxis.
  • For steeper gradients and higher concentrations, intracellular information processing is suboptimal, reducing directional accuracy.

Conclusions:

  • External fluctuations are the primary limit to chemotaxis in shallow gradients and low ligand concentrations.
  • Internal cellular information processing becomes a significant limitation in steeper gradients and higher concentrations.
  • This study quantifies information loss in chemotaxis, providing insights into cell sensing mechanisms.