Stochastic Analysis of Taxis and Kinesis Properties of Colonial Protozoa

Protozoan colonies undergo stimulus driven motion for purposes such as and nutrient acquisition. Colonial response to a stimulus is mediated through a mechanical aggregation of the response properties of members of the colony. We develop and apply asymptotic analysis to stochastic models for two separate classes of stimulus driven response of the constituent cells - taxis and kinesis. We investigate in particular the maintenance of effectiveness of taxis and kinesis in the transition from unicellular to multicellular organisms, using experimental observations of chemotaxis and aerotaxis of protozoa as a reference. Our taxis model based on a steering response of individual cells actually leads to a counterproductive drift of the colony down the stimulus gradient, together with a constructive drift up the gradient which is proportional to a measure of asymmetry of the flagellar placement. The strength of taxis drift up the stimulus gradient decreases with colony size while the counterproductive term does not, indicating a failure for colonial taxis based on a steering response of individual cells. Under a kinesis response of the cellular flagellar motion, enhancing the noise as the cell is facing away from the stimulus gradient, the colony does drift up the gradient with a speed independent of colony size, even under a completely symmetric placement of flagella.