ArticleJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2016
Physical limits on bacterial navigation in dynamic environments.
Article in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Competing chemical gradients change chemotactic dynamics and cell distribution.Physical review. E · 2026Article
- Article
- Drift velocity of bacterial chemotaxis in dynamic chemical environments.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2025Article
- ChemotaxingArXiv · 2025Article
- ChemotaxingbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Navigating bacterial motility through chemotaxis: from molecular mechanisms to physiological perspectives.Folia microbiologica · 2025Review
- Slower swimming promotes chemotactic encounters between bacteria and small phytoplankton.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Memoryless chemotaxis with discrete cues.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Multiple functions of flagellar motility and chemotaxis in bacterial physiology.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2021Review
- Better tired than lost: Turtle ant trail networks favor coherence over short edges.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Host-emitted amino acid cues regulate bacterial chemokinesis to enhance colonization.Cell host & microbe · 2021Article
- Migration and accumulation of bacteria with chemotaxis and chemokinesis.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2021Article
- Auxotrophic interactions: a stabilizing attribute of aquatic microbial communities?FEMS microbiology ecology · 2020Article
- Information limitation and the dynamics of coupled ecological systems.Nature ecology & evolution · 2020Article
- Computational and experimental insights into the chemosensory navigation oProceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Bacteria push the limits of chemotactic precision to navigate dynamic chemical gradients.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Decision making improves sperm chemotaxis in the presence of noise.PLoS computational biology · 2018Article
- Feedback between motion and sensation provides nonlinear boost in run-and-tumble navigation.PLoS computational biology · 2017Article
- Natural search algorithms as a bridge between organisms, evolution, and ecology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many chemotactic bacteria inhabit environments in which chemicals appear as localized pulses and evolve by processes such as diffusion and mixing. We show that, in such environments, physical limits on the accuracy of temporal gradient sensing govern when and where bacteria can accurately measure the cues they use to navigate. Chemical pulses are surrounded by a predictable dynamic region, outside which bacterial cells cannot resolve gradients above noise. The outer boundary of this region initially expands in proportion to the square root of time before rapidly contracting. Our analysis also reveals how chemokinesis-the increase in swimming speed many bacteria exhibit when absolute chemical concentration exceeds a threshold-may serve to enhance chemotactic accuracy and sensitivity when the chemical landscape is dynamic. More generally, our framework provides a rigorous method for partitioning bacteria into populations that are 'near' and 'far' from chemical hotspots in complex, rapidly evolving environments such as those that dominate aquatic ecosystems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.