help button home button Biophys. J.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biophysical Journal 26: 243-261 (1979)
© 1979 the Biophysical Society

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Holz, M
Right arrow Articles by Chen, S H
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Holz, M
Right arrow Articles by Chen, S H

Spatio-temporal structure of migrating chemotactic band of Escherichia coli. I. Traveling band profile.

M Holz and S H Chen

ABSTRACT

We developed a rapid-scanning, light-scattering densitometer by which extensive measurements of band migration speeds and band profiles of chemotactic bands of Escherichia coli in motility buffer both with and without serine have been made. The purpose is to test the applicability of the phenomenological model proposed by Keller and Segel (J. Theor. Biol. 1971. 30:235) and to determine the motility (mu) and chemotactic (delta) coefficients of the bacteria. We extend the previous analytical solution of the simplified Keller-Segel model by taking into account the substrate diffusion which turns out to be significant in the case of oxygen. We demonstrate that unique sets of values of mu and delta can be obtained for various samples at different stages of migration by comparing the numerical solution of the model equation and the experimental data. The rapid-scanning technique also reveals a hitherto unobserved time-dependent fine structure in the bacterial band. We give a qualitative argument to show that the fine structure is an example of the dissipative structure that arises from a nonlinear coupling between the bacterial density and the oxygen concentration gradient. Implications for a further study of the dissipative structure in testing the Keller-Segel model of chemotaxis are briefly discussed.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Biophys. JHome page
T. Ahmed and R. Stocker
Experimental Verification of the Behavioral Foundation of Bacterial Transport Parameters Using Microfluidics
Biophys. J., November 1, 2008; 95(9): 4481 - 4493.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1979 by the Biophysical Society.