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Collective gradient sensing by dilute swimming bacteria without clustering

Tatsuro Kai1,*, Takahiro Abe1,*, Natsuhiko Yoshinaga2,3,4, Shuichi Nakamura1, Seishi Kudo1, and Shoichi Toyabe1,†

  • 1Department of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan
  • 2WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
  • 3MathAM-OIL, AIST, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
  • 4Department of Complex and Intelligent Systems, Future University Hakodate, Hakodate 116-2, Japan

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †Contact author: toyabe@tohoku.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L032061 – Published 10 September, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.6.L032061

Abstract

We characterize the taxis enhancement of swimming bacteria by collective migration without apparent clustering. We confine a dilute Salmonella suspension in a shallow channel and evaluate the thermotaxis response to local heating and diffusion. By combining cell tracking analysis and numerical simulation based on simple modeling, we show that the alignment interaction suppresses orientation fluctuation, strengthens migration bias, and also prevents the dispersion of accumulated population. The results show a prominent example of how a collective motion of active matter implements a biological function.

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Phys. Rev. Research 6, L032061– Published 10 September, 2024
  • Received 17 November 2022
  • Accepted 21 August 2024
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