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Taxis

Taxis is the directed, oriented movement of a motile organism toward (positive taxis) or away from (negative taxis) a specific environmental stimulus, distinguishing it from undirected random movement known as kinesis.^[1] This behavioral response is an innate mechanism observed across various taxa, including bacteria, protists, and animals, enabling survival advantages such as foraging, predator avoidance, or mating.^[2] Common forms of taxis include phototaxis, the response to light,^[1] where organisms like moths exhibit positive phototaxis by moving toward light sources.^[3] Chemotaxis involves movement in response to chemical gradients, crucial for processes like bacterial infection or immune cell recruitment in multicellular organisms.^[2] Other notable types encompass geotaxis (response to gravity), hydrotaxis (response to water), and rheotaxis (response to water currents), each adapted to specific ecological niches.^[1] Taxis can be mediated through different sensory mechanisms, such as klinotaxis, which relies on sequential comparisons of stimulus intensity via side-to-side movements, or tropotaxis, utilizing simultaneous bilateral sensory inputs for direct orientation.^[2] In more complex cases, telotaxis and menotaxis allow for angular navigation relative to stimuli, as seen in insect light-compass reactions.^[2] These behaviors are fundamental to understanding ecological interactions, evolutionary adaptations, and applications in fields like microbiology^[4] and robotics.^[5]

Introduction

Definition

Taxis is the directed, oriented movement of a motile organism or cell toward or away from an external stimulus, enabling purposeful navigation in response to environmental cues.^[2] This behavior contrasts with kinesis, which involves non-directional changes in the speed or frequency of movement without orientation to the stimulus source.^[6] Key characteristics of taxis include its polarity—positive taxis directs movement toward the stimulus, while negative taxis directs it away—and its dependence on detecting gradients of the stimulus.^[7] Common stimuli encompass chemical gradients, light intensity, temperature variations, and gravitational forces, allowing organisms to respond adaptively to their surroundings.^[8]^[9] In distinction from tropism, which involves growth-oriented bending or turning in sessile organisms such as plants, taxis relies on active locomotion of the whole motile entity.^[10] For instance, motile cells may traverse chemical gradients to reach favorable conditions, underscoring taxis as a fundamental locomotor response in mobile life forms.^[11]

Biological Significance

Taxis plays a crucial role in the survival and fitness of motile organisms by enabling directed movement toward beneficial resources and away from harmful conditions, such as foraging for nutrients, avoiding predators, facilitating mating, and establishing symbiotic relationships.^[12]^[13] In foraging, taxis allows microorganisms to sense and ascend nutrient gradients, optimizing resource acquisition in patchy environments.^[12] For predator avoidance, negative taxis directs organisms away from toxic or predatory cues, enhancing evasion and persistence.^[4] In mating processes, taxis guides gametes or cells toward chemical signals from potential partners, increasing reproductive success in species like sperm in eukaryotes.^[14] Symbiotic interactions rely on taxis for motile microbes to locate and colonize host partners via host-released signals, promoting mutualistic associations.^[15] These behaviors collectively boost reproductive fitness by minimizing exposure to stressors and maximizing access to supportive niches.^[16] Beyond ecology, taxis has significant applications in microbiology, ecology, and medicine, where it influences infection dynamics and therapeutic strategies. In microbiology and ecology, taxis facilitates microbial dispersal and community structuring by allowing rapid adaptation to environmental gradients.^[16] Medically, bacterial taxis contributes to pathogenesis by directing pathogens to inflammation sites during infections, accessing host nutrients and exacerbating disease progression.^[17] For instance, chemotaxis enables bacteria like Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa to colonize wounds or mucosal surfaces, complicating treatment.^[18] In wound healing, eukaryotic cell taxis, such as neutrophil chemotaxis toward damage signals, promotes tissue repair by recruiting immune cells and fibroblasts to injury sites.^[19] These insights inform antibiotic development targeting chemotaxis pathways and bioengineered therapies mimicking taxis for directed cell delivery.^[20] Quantitatively, taxis enhances navigational efficiency in heterogeneous environments, substantially reducing energy expenditure relative to random search strategies. In bacteria, chemotactic run-and-tumble motility biases movement up gradients, can increase the instantaneous nutrient uptake rate by approximately a factor of two compared to non-chemotactic diffusive random walks.^[21] This directed bias minimizes time spent in suboptimal areas, conserving energy for growth and reproduction in nutrient-variable habitats.^[22] The biological importance of taxis was first recognized through Theodor Wilhelm Engelmann's 1881 observations of bacterial phototaxis, where aerobic bacteria accumulated near oxygen-producing regions of illuminated algae filaments, linking taxis to photosynthetic oxygen evolution and establishing its role in microbial ecology.^[23]

Classification

By Stimulus Type

Taxis in biology are classified according to the type of environmental stimulus that elicits the directed movement, with specific terms derived from Greek roots to denote the stimulus modality combined with "taxis," meaning "arrangement" or "order."^[24]^[25] This nomenclature reflects the organized response of organisms to gradients or directional cues, such as chemicals, light, or physical forces, enabling navigation toward favorable conditions or away from harm.^[26] The classification emphasizes the sensory input rather than the organism or movement orientation, though responses can be positive (toward the stimulus) or negative (away from it).^[27] Chemotaxis refers to the movement of organisms in response to chemical gradients, where attractants such as nutrients draw cells toward higher concentrations, while repellents like toxins prompt avoidance.^[28] The term "chemotaxis" was coined in 1884 by botanist Wilhelm Pfeffer.^[29] Derived from the Greek "chemo-" (relating to chemistry, from χημεία, khemeía) and "taxis."^[30] This response is fundamental for foraging and survival, as seen in bacteria navigating toward sugars or away from poisons through temporal sensing of concentration changes.^[31] Phototaxis describes organismal movement directed by light stimuli, including variations in intensity or wavelength, with photosynthetic organisms often exhibiting positive phototaxis to optimize energy capture.^[32] The prefix "photo-" stems from the Greek φῶς (phōs), meaning "light," highlighting the role of photoreceptors in detecting directional light cues. This behavior aids in photic zone positioning for algae and other light-dependent microbes.^[28] Thermotaxis involves directed movement along temperature gradients, allowing organisms to seek optimal thermal environments for metabolic activity.^[26] Derived from the Greek "thermo-" (θέρμη, thermē, "heat"), this taxis is crucial for thermoregulation in varied habitats. Additional types include electrotaxis, or galvanotaxis, which is movement in response to electric fields; gravitaxis (formerly geotaxis), directed by gravity; rheotaxis, alignment with fluid flow; and thigmotaxis, triggered by mechanical touch or contact.^[4] These terms incorporate Greek roots such as "electro-" for electricity, "gravis" for heavy (Latin influence but rooted in Greek concepts), "rheo-" for flow (ῥέω, rheō), and "thigmo-" for touch (θιγμός, thigmos).^[26] Across these taxis types, detection generally occurs through stimulus binding to specialized receptors on the cell surface or within the organism, which modulates intracellular signaling to produce a biased random walk—alternating straight runs and reorientations that net directional progress along the gradient.^[31]^[33] This principle underlies efficient navigation without requiring constant gradient measurement, relying on temporal comparisons of stimulus levels during movement.^[22]

By Directional Response

Taxis can be classified based on the direction of movement relative to the stimulus gradient. Positive taxis refers to directed movement toward the source of the stimulus, effectively up the gradient, while negative taxis involves movement away from the source, or down the gradient.^[4] These directional responses are further modified by the sensory mechanisms used for gradient detection and orientation. Klinotaxis involves sequential comparisons of stimulus intensity at different points during movement, allowing the organism to adjust its path progressively toward or away from the source. Telotaxis entails direct orientation toward a perceived stimulus direction using specialized receptors that provide a fixed bearing, without relying on gradient comparisons. Tropotaxis, in contrast, achieves orientation through simultaneous bilateral sensing, where differences in stimulus intensity between two sides of the body enable immediate steering adjustments. In some systems, particularly prokaryotic ones, taxis is realized through behavioral models like run-and-tumble motion, where periods of straight-line swimming (runs) alternate with random reorientations (tumbles); modulation of tumble frequency in response to the gradient creates a net bias in movement direction, achieving effective taxis without precise steering.^[34] This contrasts with kinesis, an undirected response where stimulus intensity alters the rate or speed of random movement but does not produce oriented displacement toward or away from the source. Such distinctions highlight that taxis requires sensory-directed navigation, whereas kinesis reflects non-specific changes in locomotor activity.

Mechanisms

Stimulus Detection

In taxis, organisms detect environmental stimuli through specialized receptors that initiate the sensory process. Chemoreceptors, such as methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs) in bacteria, are transmembrane proteins that bind specific ligands like sugars or amino acids, triggering conformational changes that propagate signals intracellularly.^[35] Photoreceptors, exemplified by rhodopsins in microorganisms, detect light wavelengths via retinal chromophore isomerization upon photon absorption, enabling phototactic responses.^[36] Gradient sensing in taxis occurs via two primary mechanisms: temporal sensing, where cells compare stimulus concentrations over time as they move, and spatial sensing, where differences are detected across the cell body simultaneously.^[37] Bacteria predominantly employ temporal sensing due to their small size, while larger eukaryotic cells often rely on spatial sensing to resolve shallow gradients efficiently.^[38] The choice between these mechanisms depends on cell dimensions, motility speed, and signaling kinetics, optimizing detection in varying environments.^[39] Upon stimulus detection, signal transduction begins with ligand or photon binding to receptors, activating intracellular pathways. In prokaryotes, this modulates the activity of histidine kinases like CheA, altering phosphorylation cascades that relay information to response regulators.^[40] In eukaryotes, binding often elevates second messengers such as cyclic AMP (cAMP), which activates protein kinase A and subsequent kinase cascades to amplify the signal.^[41] Receptor occupancy, a key quantitative aspect, follows the model:

\theta = \frac{[S]}{K_d + [S]}

where \theta represents the fraction of bound receptors, [S] is the stimulus concentration, and K_d is the dissociation constant, describing saturation at high concentrations.^[42] Adaptation ensures sustained sensitivity by desensitizing receptors to constant stimuli, preventing saturation. In bacterial chemoreceptors, this involves reversible methylation of glutamate residues by CheR methyltransferase and demethylation by CheB methylesterase, adjusting receptor activity to baseline levels.^[43] This feedback mechanism allows cells to detect changes in dynamic gradients over wide concentration ranges, maintaining responsiveness without external modulation.^[44]

Locomotor Response

In taxis, detected signals are transduced into directed locomotion through specialized motility structures that generate propulsive force. Prokaryotes primarily employ flagella, which function as rotary motors that propel the cell by rotating a helical filament, achieving speeds up to approximately 35 body lengths per second in bacteria like Escherichia coli ^[45]. In eukaryotes, cilia provide motility via coordinated beating, where dynein motors slide microtubules to produce asymmetric waveforms that drive forward motion, as seen in protists such as Chlamydomonas ^[46]. Amoeboid crawling, common in leukocytes and other eukaryotic cells, relies on actin-myosin contractility to extend pseudopods and deform the cell body, enabling navigation through complex environments without rigid appendages ^[47]. Locomotor responses are modulated by altering the probability and nature of directional changes in response to signal gradients. In bacterial run-and-tumble motion, cells alternate between straight "runs" of smooth swimming and random "tumbles" that reorient the body; favorable signals bias this by suppressing tumbling rates, increasing run persistence toward the stimulus ^[34]. This modulation ensures efficient navigation without precise steering, with tumble frequency adjusting from approximately 1 Hz in neutral conditions to near zero in attractant gradients ^[48]. Signal integration occurs through temporal summation, where cells compare current and past stimulus levels over seconds to minutes, computing net directionality from cumulative changes. This process involves feedback loops that adapt sensitivity, such as integral feedback in bacterial chemotaxis pathways, which corrects deviations by resetting baseline activity and maintaining orientation accuracy amid noise ^[49]. These loops enable robust trajectory adjustments, preventing overshoot in varying gradients ^[50]. Motility is powered by ATP-driven molecular motors, with flagellar rotation in bacteria generating torque via proton motive force coupled to stator-rotor interactions. The E. coli flagellar motor produces approximately 1300 pN·nm of torque at stall, sufficient to drive viscous propulsion at rotational speeds exceeding 100 Hz ^[51]. This energy efficiency underpins sustained taxis over extended distances. The overall directed movement can be modeled as a biased random walk, where the net displacement velocity v is given by

v = v_0 (p_\text{forward} - p_\text{backward}),

with v_0 as the baseline speed and p_\text{forward}, p_\text{backward} as the probabilities of forward and backward turns modulated by the signal ^[52]. This formulation captures how subtle biases in turning probabilities yield macroscopic drift toward or away from stimuli ^[53].

Examples

In Prokaryotes

In prokaryotes, taxis manifests through simple yet efficient mechanisms adapted to unicellular life, primarily in bacteria and archaea. A paradigmatic example is bacterial chemotaxis in Escherichia coli, where cells navigate chemical gradients using a two-component signaling system involving methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs) and Che proteins. MCPs, such as Tar and Tsr, span the inner membrane and detect attractants or repellents in the periplasm, undergoing conformational changes that modulate the autophosphorylation activity of the histidine kinase CheA.^[54] CheA transfers its phosphate to the response regulator CheY via the adaptor protein CheW; phosphorylated CheY (CheY-P) binds to the flagellar motor's FliM switch, promoting clockwise rotation and tumbling, which reorients the cell randomly.^[54] In favorable gradients, reduced CheA activity lowers CheY phosphorylation, favoring counterclockwise flagellar rotation for smooth "runs" toward the stimulus.^[54] This run-and-tumble bias enables net migration without direct spatial gradient detection. Phototaxis in cyanobacteria exemplifies light-directed movement, where these photosynthetic prokaryotes exhibit positive phototaxis to optimize light capture for energy production. Unicellular cyanobacteria, such as Synechococcus elongatus, use bacteriophytochrome photoreceptors like TaxD1, which bind biliverdin and detect red/far-red light (around 660–750 nm), triggering two-component signaling systems similar to chemotaxis pathways that modulate type IV pili motility for directed movement toward light sources.^[55] Unlike retinal-based rhodopsins in halobacteria, these phytochromes couple to CheA/CheY-like systems, adjusting reversal frequencies for biased swimming or gliding.^[56] Other notable prokaryotic taxis include aerotaxis and magnetotaxis. In aerobic bacteria like Bacillus subtilis and E. coli, aerotaxis directs cells toward optimal oxygen concentrations (typically around 0.5% for E. coli) via energy taxis, where oxygen gradients are sensed indirectly through respiratory chain components like cytochrome oxidases, which influence CheA activity and tumbling rates.^[57]^[58] This ensures positioning in oxic microenvironments for efficient ATP production. Magnetotaxis, observed in magnetotactic bacteria such as Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum, relies on magnetosomes—intracellular chains of membrane-bound magnetite (Fe₃O₄) or greigite (Fe₃S₄) nanocrystals that impart a permanent magnetic dipole.^[59] These organelles align cells passively with Earth's geomagnetic field, coupling with flagellar motility to guide vertical migration along oxygen gradients in aquatic sediments, preventing exposure to lethal anoxia or hyperoxia.^[59] Experimental observations of prokaryotic taxis highlight its kinetics. In E. coli, three-dimensional tracking revealed that smooth runs last approximately 1–2 seconds, covering 20–40 μm at speeds of 15–25 μm/s, while tumbles endure about 0.1 seconds, randomizing direction for unbiased exploration. These parameters yield a biased random walk, with run lengths extending in attractant gradients to achieve net displacement. Prokaryotes' small size (typically 1–5 μm) constrains spatial sensing, as chemical gradients across the cell body are negligible compared to diffusion timescales, necessitating temporal comparisons of stimulus levels during motility.^[60] Cells thus detect changes by modulating signaling over time, adapting via methylation/demethylation of MCPs (catalyzed by CheR and CheB) to reset sensitivity and prevent saturation.^[54] This temporal strategy suits their rapid, diffusive environments, enabling efficient navigation despite physical limitations.

In Eukaryotes

In eukaryotes, taxis manifests in more complex cellular architectures compared to prokaryotes, often involving multicellular coordination and developmental processes. A prominent example is chemotaxis in leukocytes, where neutrophils migrate toward infection sites by sensing gradients of chemokines such as interleukin-8 (IL-8, also known as CXCL8). This process is mediated by G-protein-coupled receptors like CXCR1 and CXCR2, which trigger intracellular signaling cascades leading to actin polymerization and directed motility, enabling rapid recruitment to inflammatory sites.^[61]^[62] Phototaxis in unicellular algae like Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exemplifies light-directed movement, where the eyespot (stigma) acts as a photoreceptor to detect light intensity and direction, coordinating asymmetric flagellar beating for navigation toward optimal light conditions. The eyespot's position relative to the flagella allows spatial comparison of light across the cell, resulting in helical swimming paths that adjust based on light gradients.^[63]^[64] Additional instances include sperm chemotaxis, in which mammalian spermatozoa navigate toward the egg via gradients of attractants like progesterone released from the cumulus cells surrounding the oocyte, facilitating fertilization through flagellar reorientation and increased beat frequency. In social amoebae such as Dictyostelium discoideum, chemotaxis drives aggregation during starvation, with cells responding to propagating waves of cyclic AMP (cAMP) that serve as chemoattractant signals, forming multicellular mounds for fruiting body development.^[65]^[66]^[67]^[68] Eukaryotic cells exhibit unique adaptations for taxis, such as reliance on actin-myosin cytoskeletal dynamics to form pseudopods for crawling motility, contrasting with prokaryotic flagellar rotation. Their larger size facilitates spatial gradient sensing, where receptors on the cell surface detect concentration differences across the membrane, amplifying signals through localized phosphoinositide and calcium fluxes to polarize the cytoskeleton. A key study demonstrated electrotaxis in fibroblasts, showing their directed migration in endogenous electric fields generated at wound sites, which guides closure and tissue repair by orienting lamellipodia toward the cathode.^[69]^[70]^[71]

Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects

Ecological Roles

Bacterial chemotaxis plays a crucial role in nutrient acquisition within soil microbiomes by directing motile bacteria toward organic carbon sources, such as root exudates and decaying plant material, thereby accelerating decomposition processes. In the rhizosphere, chemotaxis enables bacteria to exploit nutrient gradients, with studies showing that it can increase carbon and nitrogen uptake by up to fourfold in heterotrophic communities metabolizing dissolved organic matter. This targeted movement enhances the breakdown of complex polymers into bioavailable forms, supporting broader nutrient cycling and microbiome diversity in terrestrial ecosystems.^[72] In aquatic environments, negative phototaxis in zooplankton, such as Daphnia species, influences predator-prey dynamics by prompting vertical migration away from ultraviolet (UV) light exposure near the surface. This behavior reduces vulnerability to UV-induced damage and predation by sight-dependent fish, as histamine-mediated signaling in the visual system drives descent into deeper, safer waters during daylight hours. Such taxis-mediated adjustments help maintain zooplankton population stability and regulate trophic interactions in freshwater and marine food webs.^[73] Chemotaxis facilitates symbiotic relationships between root nodule bacteria, like Rhizobium species, and legumes by guiding bacteria toward host-derived flavonoids exuded from roots. These compounds act as potent chemoattractants, promoting directed motility and initial attachment at infection sites, which is essential for nodule formation and subsequent nitrogen fixation. For instance, flavonoids such as luteolin induce bacterial nod gene expression while enhancing chemotactic responses, ensuring efficient symbiont recruitment and mutualistic colonization.^[74]^[75] In pathogenic contexts, taxis contributes to the spread of infections through biofilm dynamics, as exemplified by Pseudomonas aeruginosa swarming motility. This chemotaxis-regulated process allows coordinated surface migration toward nutrient-rich host tissues, facilitating biofilm establishment in lungs and wounds, which enhances persistence and antibiotic resistance during chronic infections like cystic fibrosis. Swarming, modulated by chemosensory pathways, promotes rapid colonization and dispersion, amplifying pathogen dissemination within host communities.^[76]^[77] Taxis-driven aggregation in microbial mats structures communities by responding to environmental gradients, particularly oxygen, influencing spatial organization and metabolic interactions. Aerotaxis directs bacteria, such as Pseudomonas fluorescens, to oxygen-replete interfaces, forming biofilms that generate and maintain steep O₂ gradients, with high levels near the surface (>50%) supporting aerobic metabolizers while fostering anaerobic niches below. In cyanobacterial mats, positive phototaxis leads to filament aggregation under light, optimizing photosynthesis and oxygen production, which in turn shapes layered community architectures and biogeochemical cycling.^[78]^[79]

Evolutionary Origins

The evolutionary origins of taxis are rooted in the early prokaryotic phase of life's history, with the emergence of motile behaviors coinciding with the appearance of the first free-living prokaryotes approximately 3.5 to 4 billion years ago. Fossil evidence from stromatolites and genomic reconstructions indicate that swimming motility, a prerequisite for taxis, was present in the last common bacterial ancestor shortly after the divergence from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). The chemotaxis system, a key mechanism for directed movement, is widely distributed across prokaryotic genomes, present in about 68% of bacterial and 47% of archaeal species, suggesting its ancient establishment in prokaryotic lineages through vertical inheritance and occasional lateral gene transfer. Genomic analyses reveal conserved components of the taxis machinery, such as methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs), which function as primary sensory receptors in prokaryotes and show sequence homology across bacterial and archaeal domains. These studies demonstrate that the core signaling elements evolved from simpler two-component regulatory systems, which are ubiquitous in prokaryotes and provided the foundational architecture for gradient sensing and locomotor bias. In archaea, the system exhibits structural conservation, including identical hexagonal arrays of chemoreceptors, indicating minimal divergence since its introduction via horizontal transfer from bacteria over 3.5 billion years ago.^[80] The expansion of taxis into eukaryotic lineages occurred through endosymbiotic events around 2 billion years ago, when an archaeal host acquired bacterial endosymbionts, enabling the development of more intricate motility structures like flagella and associated sensory pathways. While prokaryotic taxis relies on two-component histidine kinase systems for signal transduction, eukaryotic versions show analogous but distinct mechanisms, such as G-protein-coupled receptors that transduce stimuli into cytoskeletal rearrangements, reflecting evolutionary co-option rather than direct homology. This transition allowed for taxis responses to diverse stimuli beyond chemicals, including light and gravity. A major phase of adaptive radiation for taxis followed the Cambrian explosion approximately 541 million years ago, as bilaterian animals diversified and integrated multiple sensory modalities into coordinated behaviors. Phylogenetic reconstructions highlight how conserved prokaryotic elements influenced the evolution of complex neural circuits in metazoans, enabling taxis to evolve into higher-order tropisms that supported ecological niche exploitation. Overall, the phylogenetic history of taxis underscores its role as a foundational adaptation, conserved and diversified across life's domains through incremental genetic and structural innovations.

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We develop a theoretical description of sperm chemotaxis. Sperm cells of many species are guided to the egg by chemoattractants, a process called chemotaxis.
[52]
Human Sperm Chemotaxis: Is Progesterone a Chemoattractant?1
In vivo, human sperm chemotaxis most likely recruits capacitated spermatozoa to fertilize the egg [9]. This suggests that sperm chemotaxis has an essential ...
[53]
Oscillatory cAMP cell-cell signalling persists during multicellular ...
Apr 23, 2019 · The aggregation of starving Dictyostelium discoideum cells occurs via chemotaxis guided by propagating waves of the chemoattractant cAMP.Camp Oscillations In The... · Camp Waves In Slugs · Camp Fret Constructs<|control11|><|separator|>
[54]
Cyclic AMP waves during aggregation of Dictyostelium amoebae
Jul 1, 1989 · During the aggregation phase of their life cycle, Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae communicate with each other by traveling waves of cyclic ...Early Models · The Receptor-Camp... · Camp Waves
[55]
[PDF] Eukaryotic Chemotaxis: A Network of Signaling Pathways Controls ...
Feb 2, 2010 · Middle: Spatial sensing, a means of directional sensing, can be demonstrated by the gradient-mediated relocalization of proteins in cells ...
[56]
[PDF] How eukaryotic cells migrate along chemical gradients
Jul 28, 2011 · Chemotaxis is composed of motility, directional sensing, and polarity. Motil- ity involves the periodic extension and retraction of pseudopodia ...
[57]
Molecular insights into eukaryotic chemotaxis - The FASEB Journal
These changes are correlated with actin polymerization and other cytoskeletal events that result in preferential extention of pseudopods toward the ...
[58]
Accessing nutrients as the primary benefit arising from chemotaxis
We review here the experimental evidence indicating that accessing nutrients is the main selective force that led to the evolution of chemotaxis.Missing: acquisition decomposition
[59]
Movement of bacteria in the soil and the rhizosphere - PMC - NIH
Sep 12, 2025 · Flagellar motility and chemotaxis responses allow motile cells to quickly navigate toward nutrient sources such as root surfaces or decaying ...
[60]
Histaminergic signaling in the central nervous system of Daphnia ...
Under normal conditions Daphnia typically exhibit negative phototaxis in response to ultraviolet (UV) light exposure, moving away from the UV source towards the ...
[61]
The role of flavonoids in the establishment of plant roots ... - NIH
Flavonoids play an essential role in rhizobium-legume symbiosis as chemoattractant and nod gene inducers. They are suggested to act on mycorrhization.
[62]
The Role of Flavonoids in Nodulation Host-Range Specificity
Aug 11, 2016 · Flavonoids are crucial signaling molecules in the symbiosis between legumes and their nitrogen-fixing symbionts, the rhizobia.
[63]
Imaging and Analysis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Swarming ... - NIH
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a ubiquitous environmental organism that acts as an opportunistic human pathogen to cause skin, eye, lung, and blood infections (27). ...
[64]
Pseudomonas aeruginosa as a Model To Study Chemosensory ...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa has four different chemosensory pathways that carry out different functions and are stimulated by signal binding to 26 chemoreceptors.
[65]
developing O2 gradients drive the evolution of the Wrinkly Spreader
Spatial changes in the bacterial community structure along a vertical oxygen gradient in flooded paddy soil cores. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2000;66:754–762 ...
[66]
rapid phototactic motility of filamentous mat-forming cyanobacteria ...
Sep 7, 2015 · In dynamic microbial mat communities, motility is essential to obtain physical resources and maintain the beneficial mat structure (Mitchell and ...Results · Discussion · Aggregation-Dispersal And...Missing: taxis- | Show results with:taxis-
[67]
Structural conservation of chemotaxis machinery across Archaea ...
Bacteria evolved several classes of chemotaxis systems that were widely exchanged via LGT. In Archaea, by contrast, evolution was largely vertical, with ...Missing: predates | Show results with:predates