Bacterial chemotaxis: information processing, thermodynamics, and behavior

TL;DR

This paper reviews how Escherichia coli's chemotaxis pathways function as information processing systems, discusses recent theoretical approaches from thermodynamics and information theory, and highlights the need for integrating these theories with experimental data.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent advances in applying information theory and thermodynamics to bacterial chemotaxis and emphasizes the importance of connecting theory with single-cell experiments.

Findings

Chemotaxis pathways process environmental stimuli efficiently.

Recent theories reveal thermodynamic limits of sensing.

Integration with experiments is crucial for progress.

Abstract

Escherichia coli has long been used as a model organism due to the extensive experimental characterization of its pathways and molecular components. Take chemotaxis as an example, which allows bacteria to sense and swim in response to chemicals, such as nutrients and toxins. Many of the pathway's remarkable sensing and signaling properties are now concisely summarized in terms of design (or engineering) principles. More recently, new approaches from information theory and stochastic thermodynamics have begun to address how pathways process environmental stimuli and what the limiting factors are. However, to fully capitalize on these theoretical advances, a closer connection with single-cell experiments will be required.