Enhancement of Bacterial Mobility Due to Speed-Dependent Absorption

C.A. CONDAT; M. DI SALVO; G.J. SIBONA

Boston

Conferencia; 53rd Annual Meeting, Biophysical Society; 2009

Biophysical Society

Marine bacteria often reach high swimming speeds, either to take advantage of evanescent nutrient patches or to beat Brownian forces. Since this implies that a sizable part of their energetic budget must be allocated to motion, it is reasonable to assume that some bacteria are able to increase their nutrient intake by increasing their speed v. We formulate a model that uses the concept of internal energy depot originally developed by Schweitzer, Ebeling, and Tilch to investigate this hypothesis. We postulate that the nutrient absorption rate is of the form q(v) = q0 +Av, with q0 and A being constants. If the fraction c of energy spent non-mechanically is low, we find that there is a single stable velocity v1*, but if c is large, there is a critical value of A, Ac, below which only the