2007/10/25 by Yariv Kafri, Kafri, Yariv, Rava Azeredo da Silveira +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · #Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #Cell Behavior (q-bio.CB) #FOS: Biological sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #Gene Regulatory Network Analysis #Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks #Quantitative Methods (q-bio.QM) #Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0710.4625
openalex publication_date 2007/10/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The bacterium E. coli maneuvers itself to regions with high chemoattractant concentrations by performing two stereotypical moves: `runs', in which it moves in near straight lines, and `tumbles', in which it does not advance but changes direction randomly. The duration of each move is stochastic and depends upon the chemoattractant concentration experienced in the recent past. We relate this stochastic behavior to the steady-state density of a bacterium population, and we derive the latter as a function of chemoattractant concentration. In contrast to earlier treatments, here we account for the effects of temporal correlations and variable tumbling durations. A range of behaviors obtains, that depends subtly upon several aspects of the system - memory, correlation, and tumbling stochasticity in particular.