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. 2021 Jul 6;120(13):2623-2630.
doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2021.04.033. Epub 2021 May 6.

Biased reorientation in the chemotaxis of peritrichous bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Affiliations

Biased reorientation in the chemotaxis of peritrichous bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Tonau Nakai et al. Biophys J. .

Abstract

Many kinds of peritrichous bacteria that repeat runs and tumbles by using multiple flagella exhibit chemotaxis by sensing a difference in the concentration of the attractant or repellent between two adjacent time points. If a cell senses that the concentration of an attractant has increased, their flagellar motors decrease the switching frequency from counterclockwise to clockwise direction of rotation, which causes a longer run in swimming up the concentration gradient than swimming down. We investigated the turn angle in tumbles of peritrichous bacteria swimming across the concentration gradient of a chemoattractant because the change in the switching frequency in the rotational direction may affect the way tumbles. We tracked several hundreds of runs and tumbles of single cells of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in the concentration gradient of L-serine and found that the turn angle depends on the concentration gradient that the cell senses just before the tumble. The turn angle is biased toward a smaller value when the cells swim up the concentration gradient, whereas the distribution of the angle is almost uniform (random direction) when the cells swim down the gradient. The effect of the observed bias in the turn angle on the degree of chemotaxis was investigated by random walk simulation. In the concentration field where attractants diffuse concentrically from the point source, we found that this angular distribution clearly affects the reduction of the mean-square displacement of the cell that has started at the attractant source, that is, the bias in the turn angle distribution contributes to chemotaxis in peritrichous bacteria.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Top view of the prepared slide for observation of the bacterial chemotaxis. To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Motion of runs and tumbles of a S. Typhimurium cell around the capillary filled with L-serine. (A) Relationship between the time of tumble and the decrease in the swimming velocity. (B) Trajectory of the cell corresponding to (A). The terms “Up” and “Down” mean that the cell swims up and down the concentration gradient of the attractant, respectively. To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A single cell’s behavior around attractant source (L-serine). (A) Trajectory for sample II. The red square represents the position of the capillary tip. (B) MSD of 23 cells. Thick lines named I–IV correspond to cells with longer tracking time, analyzed in detail in Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7. To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Duration of runs of a single cell around an attractant. (A) Comparison between swimming up and down the concentration gradient of the chemoattractant for 23 cells. (B) Distribution of runs in samples I–IV. The vertical axis denotes the percentage of total runs for each cell. To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Turn angle distribution in a single cell. (A) Definition of the directional change θ and the orientation φ. (B) θ-φ plot for sample I and 23 cells. (C) Cumulative probability of the turn angle. To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Biased random walk simulation of a swimming cell in the concentration gradient of a chemoattractant. (A) Scheme of the simulation model. Each cell migrates a constant distance Δr in a unit time step, corresponding to each arrow. Cells receding from the attractant source always tumble, whereas cells approaching the attractant continue run with the probability α. (B) Modeling the difference in the turn angle between “up” and “down” for sample I. (C) Calculated MSD together with the observed one. Note that the term “Biased” and “No bias” in the graphs mean the bias only in the turn angle (not in the tumble frequency). To see this figure in color, go online.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Distribution of the duration of the tumbles for samples I–IV. The asterisk in sample II means that the distributions are significantly different at 5% level of t-test. To see this figure in color, go online.

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