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Autori principali: Saha, Soutick, Fancher, Sean, Mugler, Andrew
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14845
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author Saha, Soutick
Fancher, Sean
Mugler, Andrew
author_facet Saha, Soutick
Fancher, Sean
Mugler, Andrew
contents Bacteria track chemical gradients using a biased random walk, a process called chemotaxis. Experiments suggest that bacteria also communicate during this process. Using a mathematical model, we find that sufficiently strong communication succeeds in keeping a population of bacteria together but slows down chemotaxis. However, if the secretion of the communication molecule is coupled to the detection of the external chemoattractant, chemotaxis can be faster than without communication. Intriguingly, in this regime we predict that, even though blocking the communication receptors should slow down chemotaxis, partially blocking or underexpressing them should speed it up. Our work provides physical insights on how communication and chemotaxis are connected and may help explain why chemotaxing bacteria communicate.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14845
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Effects of cell-cell communication on bacterial chemotaxis
Saha, Soutick
Fancher, Sean
Mugler, Andrew
Biological Physics
Bacteria track chemical gradients using a biased random walk, a process called chemotaxis. Experiments suggest that bacteria also communicate during this process. Using a mathematical model, we find that sufficiently strong communication succeeds in keeping a population of bacteria together but slows down chemotaxis. However, if the secretion of the communication molecule is coupled to the detection of the external chemoattractant, chemotaxis can be faster than without communication. Intriguingly, in this regime we predict that, even though blocking the communication receptors should slow down chemotaxis, partially blocking or underexpressing them should speed it up. Our work provides physical insights on how communication and chemotaxis are connected and may help explain why chemotaxing bacteria communicate.
title Effects of cell-cell communication on bacterial chemotaxis
topic Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14845