Minimum speed required to compensate for rotation from Brownian motion and diffusion of the attractant in chemotaxis

Value 30 µm/sec
Organism Bacteria Escherichia coli
Reference Mitchell JG, Pearson L, Bonazinga A, Dillon S, Khouri H, Paxinos R. Long lag times and high velocities in the motility of natural assemblages of marine bacteria. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1995 Mar61(3):877-82. p.877 left column bottom paragraphPubMed ID16534971
Primary Source [5] Berg, H. C. 1983. Random walks in biology. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. [24] Purcell, E. 1977. Life at low Reynolds number. Am. J. Phys. 45:3–10. link
Comments P.877 left column bottom paragraph:"The energetic expense of maintaining chemotactic movement in E. coli cultures has been calculated to be a small fraction of the total energy available to a bacterium (primary source 24). This allows E. coli, and presumably other bacteria, to move continuously in random walks biased toward an attractant. For this to produce chemotaxis, a 1- or 2-µm bacterium must produce enough power to swim at least 30 µm/sec to compensate for rotation from Brownian motion and diffusion of the attractant (primary sources 5, 24)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112298