Swimming Escherichia coli Cells Explore the Environment by Lévy Walk
Haiyan Huo, Rui He, Rongjing Zhang, Junhua Yuan
Abstract
cells in an aqueous environment, we found that their trajectories are superdiffusive, with a power-law shape for the distribution of run lengths, which is characteristics of Lévy walk. We further show that this Lévy walk behavior is due to the random fluctuation of the output level of the bacterial chemotaxis pathway, and it enhances the efficiency of the bacteria in exploring the environment.
Topics & Concepts
Random walkEscherichia coliTracking (education)Power lawAqueous solutionEnterobacteriaceaeDistribution (mathematics)ChemistryPhysicsStatistical physicsMathematicsBiochemistryGeneStatisticsMathematical analysisPsychologyPhysical chemistryPedagogyDiffusion and Search DynamicsEvolution and Genetic DynamicsMicro and Nano Robotics