ArticlePLoS computational biology2017
Feedback between motion and sensation provides nonlinear boost in run-and-tumble navigation.
Article in PLoS computational biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Emergent Nonlinearity in Active Molecular Chemotaxis.ACS nano · 2026Article
- The dynamic response of the bacterial flagellar motor to its direct intracellular input signal.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 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
- Signal integration and adaptive sensory diversity tuning in Escherichia coli chemotaxis.Cell systems · 2024Article
- The dopamine circuit as a reward-taxis navigation system.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Escherichia coli chemotaxis is information limited.Nature physics · 2021Article
- Multiple functions of flagellar motility and chemotaxis in bacterial physiology.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2021Review
- Temporal fluctuations in chemotaxis gain implement a simulated-tempering strategy for efficient navigation in complex environments.iScience · 2021Article
- Active perception during angiogenesis: filopodia speed up Notch selection of tip cellsPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Article
- Chemotaxis in external fields: Simulations for active magnetic biological matter.PLoS computational biology · 2019Article
- Chemotactic behaviour of Escherichia coli at high cell density.Nature communications · 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
- Behavioral Variability and Phenotypic Diversity in Bacterial Chemotaxis.Annual review of biophysics · 2018Review
- Phenotypic diversity and temporal variability in a bacterial signaling network revealed by single-cell FRET.eLife · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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Abstract
Many organisms navigate gradients by alternating straight motions (runs) with random reorientations (tumbles), transiently suppressing tumbles whenever attractant signal increases. This induces a functional coupling between movement and sensation, since tumbling probability is controlled by the internal state of the organism which, in turn, depends on previous signal levels. Although a negative feedback tends to maintain this internal state close to adapted levels, positive feedback can arise when motion up the gradient reduces tumbling probability, further boosting drift up the gradient. Importantly, such positive feedback can drive large fluctuations in the internal state, complicating analytical approaches. Previous studies focused on what happens when the negative feedback dominates the dynamics. By contrast, we show here that there is a large portion of physiologically-relevant parameter space where the positive feedback can dominate, even when gradients are relatively shallow. We demonstrate how large transients emerge because of non-normal dynamics (non-orthogonal eigenvectors near a stable fixed point) inherent in the positive feedback, and further identify a fundamental nonlinearity that strongly amplifies their effect. Most importantly, this amplification is asymmetric, elongating runs in favorable directions and abbreviating others. The result is a "ratchet-like" gradient climbing behavior with drift speeds that can approach half the maximum run speed of the organism. Our results thus show that the classical drawback of run-and-tumble navigation-wasteful runs in the wrong direction-can be mitigated by exploiting the non-normal dynamics implicit in the run-and-tumble strategy.
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