title: Relation between chemotaxis and consumption of amino acids in bacteria.
abstract: Chemotaxis enables bacteria to navigate chemical gradients in their environment, accumulating toward high concentrations of attractants and avoiding high concentrations of repellents. Although finding nutrients is likely to be an important function of bacterial chemotaxis, not all characterized attractants are nutrients. Moreover, even for potential nutrients, the exact relation between the metabolic value of chemicals and their efficiency as chemoattractants has not been systematically explored. Here we compare the chemotactic response of amino acids with their use by bacteria for two well-established models of chemotactic behavior, Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. We demonstrate that in E. coli chemotaxis toward amino acids indeed strongly correlates with their utilization. However, no such correlation is observed for B. subtilis, suggesting that in this case, the amino acids are not followed because of their nutritional value but rather as environmental cues.
authors: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany.|Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Yiling
authors: Y
authors: Yang
authors: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany.|Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Abiola
authors: A
authors: M Pollard
authors: Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Carolin
authors: C
authors: Höfler
authors: Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Gernot
authors: G
authors: Poschet
authors: Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Wirtz
authors: Centre for Organismal Studies (COS), Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Rüdiger
authors: R
authors: Hell
authors: Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology & LOEWE Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Marburg, Germany.|Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Victor
authors: V
authors: Sourjik
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids