Bacterial chemotaxis in human diseases
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Updated: Aug 20, 2025

Time-lapse Imaging of Mouse Macrophage Chemotaxis
Published on: April 2, 2020
Bibi Zhou1, Christine M Szymanski1, Arden Baylink2
1University of Georgia, Department of Microbiology and Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Abstract:
To infect and cause disease, bacterial pathogens must localize to specific regions of the host where they possess the metabolic and defensive acumen for survival. Motile flagellated pathogens exercise control over their localization through chemotaxis to direct motility based on the landscape of exogenous nutrients, toxins, and molecular cues sensed within the host. Here, we review advances in understanding the roles chemotaxis plays in human diseases. Chemotaxis drives pathogen colonization to sites of inflammation and injury and mediates fitness advantages through accessing host-derived nutrients from damaged tissue. Injury tropism may worsen clinical outcomes through instigating chronic inflammation and subsequent cancer development. Inhibiting bacterial chemotactic systems could act synergistically with antibacterial medicines for more effective and specific eradication.
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