title: Control parameter description of eukaryotic chemotaxis.
abstract: The chemotaxis of eukaryotic cells depends both on the average concentration of the chemoattractant and on the steepness of its gradient. For the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, we test quantitatively the prediction by Ueda and Shibata [Biophys. J. 93, 11 (2007)] that the efficacy of chemotaxis depends on a single control parameter only, namely, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), determined by the stochastic fluctuations of (i) the binding of the chemoattractant molecule to the transmembrane receptor and (ii) the intracellular activation of the effector of the signaling cascade. For SNR < or approximately equal to 1, the theory captures the experimental findings well, while for larger SNR noise sources further downstream in the signaling pathway need to be taken into account.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amselem
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Theves
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beta
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bodenschatz