Peculiarities of Bacterial Chemotaxis in a Cylindrical Pore

Abstract

The process of bacterial redistribution in a cylindrical pore filled with an attractant has been considered. The attractant concentration decreases linearly along the pore, and the redistribution of bacteria occurs due to their diffusion (the motion of bacteria along the gradient of their concentration) and chemotaxis (the motion of bacteria along the gradient of attractant concentration). The influence of a spatial confinement on the bacterial distribution in the pore is analyzed. It is shown that if the pore wall is "repelling" for bacteria, the spatial confinement can change the bacterial distribution. In particular, as the pore radius decreases, the chemotaxic effect becomes weaker. The non-uniformity of a bacterial distribution in the system is estimated. The chemotaxis sensitivity function (the deviation of the ratio between the local average bacterial concentration and the average bacterial concentration over the whole system from unity) is calculated, and its dependence on the attractant concentration at the system ends and on the pore size is determined. K e y w o r d s: chemotaxis, attractant, bacterium, diffusion, cylindrical pore.

Функція Чутливості Хемотаксису Для Системи Зі Сферичною Геометрією

“…For practical applications, it is convenient to use the phenomenological model based on a system of nonlinear differential equations of the diffusion type. This model has certain restrictions, but it was used to study various chemotaxis systems and proved itself well [10][11][12][13][14]. The model is based on an approach with a rather long and successful history [15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”

“…For the flux of bacteria j 𝑏 (r, 𝑡) at the point r at the time 𝑡, the following expression was proposed in the framework of the model [10][11][12][13][14]:…”