Swimming Escherichia coli Cells Explore the Environment by Levy Walk.

ABSTRACT: Escherichia coli cells swim in aqueous environment in a random walk of alternating runs and tumbles. The diffusion characteristics of this random walk remains unclear. In this study, by tracking the swimming of wild-type cells in a three-dimensional (3D) homogeneous environment, we found that their trajectories are superdiffusive, consistent with Lévy walk behavior. For comparison, we tracked the swimming of mutant cells that lack the chemotaxis signaling noise (the steady-state fluctuation of the concentration of the chemotaxis response regulator CheY-P) and found that their trajectories are normal diffusive. Therefore, wild-type E. coli cells explore the environment by Lévy walk, which originates from the chemotaxis signaling noise. This Lévy walk pattern enhances their efficiency in env

SUBMITTER: Huo H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8105014 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature