Bacterial chemotaxis considering memory effects.

Abstract

Chemotaxis in bacteria such as Escherichia coli is controlled by the slow methylation of chemoreceptors. As a consequence, intrinsic time and length scales of tens of seconds and hundreds of micrometers emerge, making the Keller-Segel equations invalid when the chemical signal changes on these scales, as occurs in several natural environments. Using a kinetic approach, we show that chemotaxis is described using the concentration field of the protein that controls tumbling in addition to bacterial density. The macroscopic equations for these fields are derived, which describe the nonlocal response.