Traveling-Wave Chemotaxis

TL;DR

This paper presents a model for biological cell movement in response to periodic chemical waves, highlighting how adaptation can enable cells to move opposite the wave direction, with conditions for this rectified chemotaxis analyzed.

Contribution

It introduces a simple model incorporating adaptation dynamics to explain rectified chemotaxis and explores conditions for this behavior based on wave and cell parameters.

Findings

Adaptation enables cells to move against wave propagation under certain conditions.

The model predicts specific relationships between wave speed, form, and cell adaptation.

An experimental test for adaptation dynamics is proposed.

Abstract

A simple model is studied for the chemotactic movement of biological cells in the presence of a periodic chemical wave. It incorporates the feature of adaptation that may play an important role in allowing for ``rectified" chemotaxis: motion opposite the direction of wave propagation. The conditions under which such rectification occurs are elucidated in terms of the form and speed of the chemical wave, the velocity of chemotaxis, and the time scale for adaptation. An experimental test of the adaptation dynamics is proposed.