title: A minimal model of metabolism-based chemotaxis.
abstract: Since the pioneering work by Julius Adler in the 1960's, bacterial chemotaxis has been predominantly studied as metabolism-independent. All available simulation models of bacterial chemotaxis endorse this assumption. Recent studies have shown, however, that many metabolism-dependent chemotactic patterns occur in bacteria. We hereby present the simplest artificial protocell model capable of performing metabolism-based chemotaxis. The model serves as a proof of concept to show how even the simplest metabolism can sustain chemotactic patterns of varying sophistication. It also reproduces a set of phenomena that have recently attracted attention on bacterial chemotaxis and provides insights about alternative mechanisms that could instantiate them. We conclude that relaxing the metabolism-independent assumption provides important theoretical advances, forces us to rethink some established pre-conceptions and may help us better understand unexplored and poorly understood aspects of bacterial chemotaxis.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. mde@matthewegbert.com
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Egbert
authors.forename: Xabier E
authors.initials: XE
authors.lastname: Barandiaran
authors.forename: Ezequiel A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Di Paolo
mesh_terms: D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology; D005650:Fumarates / Q000378:metabolism; D008660:Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D012486:Salmonella typhimurium / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D049490:Systems Biology
chemical_list: D005650:Fumarates