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Variation of swimming speed enhances the chemotactic migration of Escherichia coli

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Systems and Synthetic Biology

Abstract

Studies on chemotaxis of Escherichia coli have shown that modulation of tumble frequency causes a net drift up the gradient of attractants. Recently, it has been demonstrated that the bacteria is also capable of varying its runs speed in uniform concentration of attractant. In this study, we investigate the role of swimming speed on the chemotactic migration of bacteria. To this end, cells are exposed to gradients of a non-metabolizable analogue of glucose which are sensed via the Trg sensor. When exposed to a gradient, the cells modulate their tumble duration, which is accompanied with variation in swimming speed leading to drift velocities that are much higher than those achieved through the modulation of the tumble duration alone. We use an existing intra-cellular model developed for the Tar receptor and incorporate the variation of the swimming speed along with modulation of tumble frequency to predict drift velocities close to the measured values. The main implication of our study is that E. coli not only modulates the tumble frequency, but may also vary the swimming speed to affect chemotaxis and thereby efficiently sample its nutritionally rich environment.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Department of Science and Technology, India. MST also acknowledges support from the Swaranajayanti Fellowship.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, 400076, India

      R. V. S. Uday Bhaskar, Richa Karmakar, Deepti Deepika, Mahesh S. Tirumkudulu & K. V. Venkatesh

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    1. R. V. S. Uday Bhaskar
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    2. Richa Karmakar
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    3. Deepti Deepika
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    4. Mahesh S. Tirumkudulu
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    5. K. V. Venkatesh
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    Correspondence to K. V. Venkatesh.

    Additional information

    R. V. S. Uday Bhaskar and Richa Karmakar have contributed equally to this work.

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    Uday Bhaskar, R.V.S., Karmakar, R., Deepika, D. et al. Variation of swimming speed enhances the chemotactic migration of Escherichia coli . Syst Synth Biol 9, 85–95 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11693-015-9174-x

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11693-015-9174-x

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