Chemotaxis (from chemo- + taxis ) is the movement of an organism or entity in response to a chemical stimulus. [1] Somatic cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment. This is important for bacteria to find food (e.g., glucose) by swimming toward the highest concentration of food molecules, or to flee from poisons (e.g., phenol). In multicellular organisms, chemotaxis is critical to early development (e.g., movement of sperm towards the egg during fertilization) and development (e.g., migration of neurons or lymphocytes) as well as in normal function and health (e.g., migration of leukocytes during injury or infection). [2] In addition, it has been recognized that mechanisms that allow chemotaxis in animals can be subverted during cancer metastasis, [3] and the aberrant change of the overall property of these networks, which control chemotaxis, can lead to carcinogenesis. [4] The aberrant chemotaxis of leukocytes and lymphocytes also contribute to inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis, asthma, and arthritis. [5] [6] [7] [8] Sub-cellular components, such as the polarity patch generated by mating yeast, may also display chemotactic behavior. [9]
Positive chemotaxis occurs if the movement is toward a higher concentration of the chemical in question; negative chemotaxis if the movement is in the opposite direction. Chemically prompted kinesis (randomly directed or nondirectional) can be called chemokinesis.
Although migration of cells was detected from the early days of the development of microscopy by Leeuwenhoek, a Caltech lecture regarding chemotaxis propounds that 'erudite description of chemotaxis was only first made by T. W. Engelmann (1881) and W. F. Pfeffer (1884) in bacteria, and H. S. Jennings (1906) in ciliates'. [10] The Nobel Prize laureate I. Metchnikoff also contributed to the study of the field during 1882 to 1886, with investigations of the process as an initial step of phagocytosis. [11] The significance of chemotaxis in biology and clinical pathology was widely accepted in the 1930s, and the most fundamental definitions underlying the phenomenon were drafted by this time.[ by whom? ] The most important aspects in quality control of chemotaxis assays were described by H. Harris in the 1950s. [12] In the 1960s and 1970s, the revolution of modern cell biology and biochemistry provided a series of novel techniques that became available to investigate the migratory responder cells and subcellular fractions responsible for chemotactic activity. [13] The availability of this technology led to the discovery of C5a, a major chemotactic factor involved in acute inflammation. The pioneering works of J. Adler modernized Pfeffer's capillary assay and represented a significant turning point in understanding the whole process of intracellular signal transduction of bacteria. [14] [15]
Some bacteria, such as E. coli , have several flagella per cell (4–10 typically). These can rotate in two ways:
The directions of rotation are given for an observer outside the cell looking down the flagella toward the cell. [17]
The overall movement of a bacterium is the result of alternating tumble and swim phases, called run-and-tumble motion. [18] As a result, the trajectory of a bacterium swimming in a uniform environment will form a random walk with relatively straight swims interrupted by random tumbles that reorient the bacterium. [19] Bacteria such as E. coli are unable to choose the direction in which they swim, and are unable to swim in a straight line for more than a few seconds due to rotational diffusion; in other words, bacteria "forget" the direction in which they are going. By repeatedly evaluating their course, and adjusting if they are moving in the wrong direction, bacteria can direct their random walk motion toward favorable locations. [20]
In the presence of a chemical gradient bacteria will chemotax, or direct their overall motion based on the gradient. If the bacterium senses that it is moving in the correct direction (toward attractant/away from repellent), it will keep swimming in a straight line for a longer time before tumbling; however, if it is moving in the wrong direction, it will tumble sooner. Bacteria like E. coli use temporal sensing to decide whether their situation is improving or not, and in this way, find the location with the highest concentration of attractant, detecting even small differences in concentration. [21]
This biased random walk is a result of simply choosing between two methods of random movement; namely tumbling and straight swimming. [22] The helical nature of the individual flagellar filament is critical for this movement to occur. The protein structure that makes up the flagellar filament, flagellin, is conserved among all flagellated bacteria. [23] Vertebrates seem to have taken advantage of this fact by possessing an immune receptor (TLR5) designed to recognize this conserved protein. [24]
As in many instances in biology, there are bacteria that do not follow this rule. Many bacteria, such as Vibrio, are monoflagellated and have a single flagellum at one pole of the cell. Their method of chemotaxis is different. Others possess a single flagellum that is kept inside the cell wall. These bacteria move by spinning the whole cell, which is shaped like a corkscrew. [25] [ page needed ]
Chemical gradients are sensed through multiple transmembrane receptors, called methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs), which vary in the molecules that they detect. [26] Thousands of MCP receptors are known to be encoded across the bacterial kingdom. [27] These receptors may bind attractants or repellents directly or indirectly through interaction with proteins of periplasmatic space. [28] The signals from these receptors are transmitted across the plasma membrane into the cytosol, where Che proteins are activated. [29] The Che proteins alter the tumbling frequency, and alter the receptors. [29]
The proteins CheW and CheA bind to the receptor. The absence of receptor activation results in autophosphorylation in the histidine kinase, CheA, at a single highly conserved histidine residue. [30] [ better source needed ] CheA, in turn, transfers phosphoryl groups to conserved aspartate residues in the response regulators CheB and CheY; CheA is a histidine kinase and it does not actively transfer the phosphoryl group, rather, the response regulator CheB takes the phosphoryl group from CheA.[ citation needed ] This mechanism of signal transduction is called a two-component system, and it is a common form of signal transduction in bacteria.[ citation needed ] CheY induces tumbling by interacting with the flagellar switch protein FliM, inducing a change from counter-clockwise to clockwise rotation of the flagellum. Change in the rotation state of a single flagellum can disrupt the entire flagella bundle and cause a tumble.[ citation needed ]
CheB, when activated by CheA, acts as a methylesterase, removing methyl groups from glutamate residues on the cytosolic side of the receptor; it works antagonistically with CheR, a methyltransferase, which adds methyl residues to the same glutamate residues. [26] If the level of an attractant remains high, the level of phosphorylation of CheA (and, therefore, CheY and CheB) will remain low, the cell will swim smoothly, and the level of methylation of the MCPs will increase (because CheB-P is not present to demethylate). [26] The MCPs no longer respond to the attractant when they are fully methylated; therefore, even though the level of attractant might remain high, the level of CheA-P (and CheB-P) increases and the cell begins to tumble. [26] The MCPs can be demethylated by CheB-P, and, when this happens, the receptors can once again respond to attractants. [26] The situation is the opposite with regard to repellents: fully methylated MCPs respond best to repellents, while least-methylated MCPs respond worst to repellents.[ citation needed ] This regulation allows the bacterium to 'remember' chemical concentrations from the recent past, a few seconds, and compare them to those it is currently experiencing, thus 'know' whether it is traveling up or down a gradient. [31] that bacteria have to chemical gradients, other mechanisms are involved in increasing the absolute value of the sensitivity on a given background. Well-established examples are the ultra-sensitive response of the motor to the CheY-P signal, and the clustering of chemoreceptors. [32] [33]
Chemoattractants and chemorepellents are inorganic or organic substances possessing chemotaxis-inducer effect in motile cells. These chemotactic ligands create chemical concentration gradients that organisms, prokaryotic and eukaryotic, move toward or away from, respectively. [34]
Effects of chemoattractants are elicited via chemoreceptors such as methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCP). [35] MCPs in E.coli include Tar, Tsr, Trg and Tap. [36] Chemoattracttants to Trg include ribose and galactose with phenol as a chemorepellent. Tap and Tsr recognize dipeptides and serine as chemoattractants, respectively. [36]
Chemoattractants or chemorepellents bind MCPs at its extracellular domain; an intracellular signaling domain relays the changes in concentration of these chemotactic ligands to downstream proteins like that of CheA which then relays this signal to flagellar motors via phosphorylated CheY (CheY-P). [35] CheY-P can then control flagellar rotation influencing the direction of cell motility. [35]
For E.coli, S. meliloti , and R. spheroides, the binding of chemoattractants to MCPs inhibit CheA and therefore CheY-P activity, resulting in smooth runs, but for B. substilis , CheA activity increases. [35] Methylation events in E.coli cause MCPs to have lower affinity to chemoattractants which causes increased activity of CheA and CheY-P resulting in tumbles. [35] In this way cells are able to adapt to the immediate chemoattractant concentration and detect further changes to modulate cell motility. [35]
Chemoattractants in eukaryotes are well characterized for immune cells. Formyl peptides, such as fMLF, attract leukocytes such as neutrophils and macrophages, causing movement toward infection sites. [37] Non-acylated methioninyl peptides do not act as chemoattractants to neutrophils and macrophages. [37] Leukocytes also move toward chemoattractants C5a, a complement component, and pathogen-specific ligands on bacteria. [37]
Mechanisms concerning chemorepellents are less known than chemoattractants. Although chemorepellents work to confer an avoidance response in organisms, Tetrahymena thermophila adapt to a chemorepellent, Netrin-1 peptide, within 10 minutes of exposure; however, exposure to chemorepellents such as GTP, PACAP-38, and nociceptin show no such adaptations. [38] GTP and ATP are chemorepellents in micro-molar concentrations to both Tetrahymena and Paramecium . These organisms avoid these molecules by producing avoiding reactions to re-orient themselves away from the gradient. [39]
The mechanism of chemotaxis that eukaryotic cells employ is quite different from that in the bacteria E. coli; however, sensing of chemical gradients is still a crucial step in the process. [40] [ better source needed ] Due to their small size and other biophysical constraints, E. coli cannot directly detect a concentration gradient. [41] Instead, they employ temporal gradient sensing, where they move over larger distances several times their own width and measure the rate at which perceived chemical concentration changes. [42] [43]
Eukaryotic cells are much larger than prokaryotes and have receptors embedded uniformly throughout the cell membrane. [42] Eukaryotic chemotaxis involves detecting a concentration gradient spatially by comparing the asymmetric activation of these receptors at the different ends of the cell. [42] Activation of these receptors results in migration towards chemoattractants, or away from chemorepellants. [42] In mating yeast, which are non-motile, patches of polarity proteins on the cell cortex can relocate in a chemotactic fashion up pheromone gradients. [44] [9]
It has also been shown that both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are capable of chemotactic memory. [43] [45] In prokaryotes, this mechanism involves the methylation of receptors called methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins (MCPs). [43] This results in their desensitization and allows prokaryotes to "remember" and adapt to a chemical gradient. [43] In contrast, chemotactic memory in eukaryotes can be explained by the Local Excitation Global Inhibition (LEGI) model. [45] [46] LEGI involves the balance between a fast excitation and delayed inhibition which controls downstream signaling such as Ras activation and PIP3 production. [47]
Levels of receptors, intracellular signalling pathways and the effector mechanisms all represent diverse, eukaryotic-type components. In eukaryotic unicellular cells, amoeboid movement and cilium or the eukaryotic flagellum are the main effectors (e.g., Amoeba or Tetrahymena). [48] [49] Some eukaryotic cells of higher vertebrate origin, such as immune cells also move to where they need to be. Besides immune competent cells (granulocyte, monocyte, lymphocyte) a large group of cells—considered previously to be fixed into tissues—are also motile in special physiological (e.g., mast cell, fibroblast, endothelial cells) or pathological conditions (e.g., metastases). [50] Chemotaxis has high significance in the early phases of embryogenesis as development of germ layers is guided by gradients of signal molecules. [51] [52]
The specific molecule/s that allow a eukaryotic cells detect a gradient of chemoattractant ligands (that is, a sort of the molecular compass that detects the direction of a chemoattractant) seems to change depending on the cell and chemoattractant receptor involved or even the concentration of the chemoattractant. However, these molecules apparently are activated independently of the motility of the cell. That is, even an immnobilized cell is still able to detect the direction of a chemoattractant. [53] There appear to be mechanisms by which an external chemotactic gradient is sensed and turned into an intracellular Ras and PIP3 gradients, which results in a gradient and the activation of a signaling pathway, culminating in the polymerisation of actin filaments. The growing distal end of actin filaments develops connections with the internal surface of the plasma membrane via different sets of peptides and results in the formation of anterior pseudopods and posterior uropods. [54] [55] Cilia of eukaryotic cells can also produce chemotaxis; in this case, it is mainly a Ca2+-dependent induction of the microtubular system of the basal body and the beat of the 9 + 2 microtubules within cilia. The orchestrated beating of hundreds of cilia is synchronized by a submembranous system built between basal bodies. The details of the signaling pathways are still not totally clear.
Chemotaxis refers to the directional migration of cells in response to chemical gradients; several variations of chemical-induced migration exist as listed below.
In general, eukaryotic cells sense the presence of chemotactic stimuli through the use of 7-transmembrane (or serpentine) heterotrimeric G-protein-coupled receptors, a class representing a significant portion of the genome. [58] Some members of this gene superfamily are used in eyesight (rhodopsins) as well as in olfaction (smelling). [59] [60] The main classes of chemotaxis receptors are triggered by:
However, induction of a wide set of membrane receptors (e.g., cyclic nucleotides, amino acids, insulin, vasoactive peptides) also elicit migration of the cell. [62]
While some chemotaxis receptors are expressed in the surface membrane with long-term characteristics, as they are determined genetically, others have short-term dynamics, as they are assembled ad hoc in the presence of the ligand. [63] The diverse features of the chemotaxis receptors and ligands allows for the possibility of selecting chemotactic responder cells with a simple chemotaxis assay By chemotactic selection, we can determine whether a still-uncharacterized molecule acts via the long- or the short-term receptor pathway. [64] The term chemotactic selection is also used to designate a technique that separates eukaryotic or prokaryotic cells according to their chemotactic responsiveness to selector ligands. [65] [ non-primary source needed ][ non-primary source needed ]
The number of molecules capable of eliciting chemotactic responses is relatively high, and we can distinguish primary and secondary chemotactic molecules.[ citation needed ] The main groups of the primary ligands are as follows:
Chemotactic responses elicited by ligand-receptor interactions vary with the concentration of the ligand. Investigations of ligand families (e.g. amino acids or oligopeptides) demonstrates that chemoattractant activity occurs over a wide range, while chemorepellent activities have narrow ranges. [72]
A changed migratory potential of cells has relatively high importance in the development of several clinical symptoms and syndromes. Altered chemotactic activity of extracellular (e.g., Escherichia coli) or intracellular (e.g., Listeria monocytogenes) pathogens itself represents a significant clinical target. Modification of endogenous chemotactic ability of these microorganisms by pharmaceutical agents can decrease or inhibit the ratio of infections or spreading of infectious diseases. Apart from infections, there are some other diseases wherein impaired chemotaxis is the primary etiological factor, as in Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, where giant intracellular vesicles inhibit normal migration of cells.
Type of disease | Chemotaxis increased | Chemotaxis decreased |
---|---|---|
Infections | Inflammations | AIDS, Brucellosis |
Chemotaxis results in the disease | — | Chédiak–Higashi syndrome, Kartagener syndrome |
Chemotaxis is affected | Atherosclerosis, arthritis, periodontitis, psoriasis, reperfusion injury, metastatic tumors | Multiple sclerosis, Hodgkin disease, male infertility |
Intoxications | Asbestos, benzpyrene | Hg and Cr salts, ozone |
Several mathematical models of chemotaxis were developed depending on the type of
Although interactions of the factors listed above make the behavior of the solutions of mathematical models of chemotaxis rather complex, it is possible to describe the basic phenomenon of chemotaxis-driven motion in a straightforward way. Indeed, let us denote with the spatially non-uniform concentration of the chemo-attractant and as its gradient. Then the chemotactic cellular flow (also called current) that is generated by the chemotaxis is linked to the above gradient by the law: [73]
where is the spatial density of the cells and is the so-called 'Chemotactic coefficient' - is often not constant, but a decreasing function of the chemo-attractant. For some quantity that is subject to total flux and generation/destruction term , it is possible to formulate a continuity equation:
where is the divergence. This general equation applies to both the cell density and the chemo-attractant. Therefore, incorporating a diffusion flux into the total flux term, the interactions between these quantities are governed by a set of coupled reaction-diffusion partial differential equations describing the change in and : [73]
where describes the growth in cell density, is the kinetics/source term for the chemo-attractant, and the diffusion coefficients for cell density and the chemo-attractant are respectively and .
Spatial ecology of soil microorganisms is a function of their chemotactic sensitivities towards substrate and fellow organisms. [74] [ non-primary source needed ][ non-primary source needed ] The chemotactic behavior of the bacteria was proven to lead to non-trivial population patterns even in the absence of environmental heterogeneities. The presence of structural pore scale heterogeneities has an extra impact on the emerging bacterial patterns.
A wide range of techniques is available to evaluate chemotactic activity of cells or the chemoattractant and chemorepellent character of ligands. The basic requirements of the measurement are as follows:
Despite the fact that an ideal chemotaxis assay is still not available, there are several protocols and pieces of equipment that offer good correspondence with the conditions described above. The most commonly used are summarised in the table below:
Type of assay | Agar-plate assays | Two-chamber assays | Others |
---|---|---|---|
Examples |
|
|
|
Chemical robots that use artificial chemotaxis to navigate autonomously have been designed. [75] [76] Applications include targeted delivery of drugs in the body. [77] More recently, enzyme molecules have also shown positive chemotactic behavior in the gradient of their substrates. [78] The thermodynamically favorable binding of enzymes to their specific substrates is recognized as the origin of enzymatic chemotaxis. [79] Additionally, enzymes in cascades have also shown substrate-driven chemotactic aggregation. [80]
Apart from active enzymes, non-reacting molecules also show chemotactic behavior. This has been demonstrated by using dye molecules that move directionally in gradients of polymer solution through favorable hydrophobic interactions. [81]
A taxis is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus such as light or the presence of food. Taxes are innate behavioural responses. A taxis differs from a tropism in that in the case of taxis, the organism has motility and demonstrates guided movement towards or away from the stimulus source. It is sometimes distinguished from a kinesis, a non-directional change in activity in response to a stimulus.
Chemokines, or chemotactic cytokines, are a family of small cytokines or signaling proteins secreted by cells that induce directional movement of leukocytes, as well as other cell types, including endothelial and epithelial cells. In addition to playing a major role in the activation of host immune responses, chemokines are important for biological processes, including morphogenesis and wound healing, as well as in the pathogenesis of diseases like cancers.
Chemotropism is defined as the growth of organisms navigated by chemical stimulus from outside of the organism. It has been observed in bacteria, plants and fungi. A chemical gradient can influence the growth of the organism in a positive or negative way. Positive growth is characterized by growing towards a stimulus and negative growth is growing away from the stimulus.
In biology, cell signaling is the process by which a cell interacts with itself, other cells, and the environment. Cell signaling is a fundamental property of all cellular life in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.
Julius Adler was an American biochemist. He had been an Emeritus Professor of biochemistry and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1997.
Chemokine ligand 7 (CCL7) is a small cytokine that was previously called monocyte-chemotactic protein 3 (MCP3). CCL7 is a small protein that belongs to the CC chemokine family and is most closely related to CCL2.
The formyl peptide receptors (FPR) belong to a class of G protein-coupled receptors involved in chemotaxis. In humans, there are three formyl peptide receptor isoforms, each encoded by a separate gene that are named FPR1, FPR2, and FPR3. These receptors were originally identified by their ability to bind N-formyl peptides such as N-formylmethionine produced by the degradation of either bacterial or host cells. Hence formyl peptide receptors are involved in mediating immune cell response to infection. These receptors may also act to suppress the immune system under certain conditions. The close phylogenetic relation of signaling in chemotaxis and olfaction was recently proved by detection formyl peptide receptor like proteins as a distinct family of vomeronasal organ chemosensors in mice.
In enzymology, a protein-glutamate O-methyltransferase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
N-Formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine is an N-formylated tripeptide and sometimes simply referred to as chemotactic peptide is a potent polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) chemotactic factor and is also a macrophage activator.
In molecular biology, a two-component regulatory system serves as a basic stimulus-response coupling mechanism to allow organisms to sense and respond to changes in many different environmental conditions. Two-component systems typically consist of a membrane-bound histidine kinase that senses a specific environmental stimulus, and a corresponding response regulator that mediates the cellular response, mostly through differential expression of target genes. Although two-component signaling systems are found in all domains of life, they are most common by far in bacteria, particularly in Gram-negative and cyanobacteria; both histidine kinases and response regulators are among the largest gene families in bacteria. They are much less common in archaea and eukaryotes; although they do appear in yeasts, filamentous fungi, and slime molds, and are common in plants, two-component systems have been described as "conspicuously absent" from animals.
Bacterial motility is the ability of bacteria to move independently using metabolic energy. Most motility mechanisms that evolved among bacteria also evolved in parallel among the archaea. Most rod-shaped bacteria can move using their own power, which allows colonization of new environments and discovery of new resources for survival. Bacterial movement depends not only on the characteristics of the medium, but also on the use of different appendages to propel. Swarming and swimming movements are both powered by rotating flagella. Whereas swarming is a multicellular 2D movement over a surface and requires the presence of surfactants, swimming is movement of individual cells in liquid environments.
Sperm guidance is the process by which sperm cells (spermatozoa) are directed to the oocyte (egg) for the aim of fertilization. In the case of marine invertebrates the guidance is done by chemotaxis. In the case of mammals, it appears to be done by chemotaxis, thermotaxis and rheotaxis.
Sperm chemotaxis is a form of sperm guidance, in which sperm cells (spermatozoa) follow a concentration gradient of a chemoattractant secreted from the oocyte and thereby reach the oocyte.
Targeted drug delivery is one of many ways researchers seek to improve drug delivery systems' overall efficacy, safety, and delivery. Within this medical field is a special reversal form of drug delivery called chemotactic drug targeting. By using chemical agents to help guide a drug carrier to a specific location within the body, this innovative approach seeks to improve precision and control during the drug delivery process, decrease the risk of toxicity, and potentially lower the required medical dosage needed. The general components of the conjugates are designed as follows: (i) carrier – regularly possessing promoter effect also on internalization into the cell; (ii) chemotactically active ligands acting on the target cells; (iii) drug to be delivered in a selective way and (iv) spacer sequence which joins drug molecule to the carrier and due to it enzyme labile moiety makes possible the intracellular compartment specific release of the drug. Careful selection of chemotactic component of the ligand not only the chemoattractant character could be expended, however, chemorepellent ligands are also valuable as they are useful to keep away cell populations degrading the conjugate containing the drug. In a larger sense, chemotactic drug-targeting has the potential to improve cancer, inflammation, and arthritis treatment by taking advantage of the difference in environment between the target site and its surroundings. Therefore, this Wikipedia article aims to provide a brief overview of chemotactic drug targeting, the principles behind the approach, possible limitations and advantages, and its application to cancer and inflammation.
The methyl-accepting chemotaxis proteins are a family of transmembrane receptors that mediate chemotactic response in certain enteric bacteria, such as Salmonella enterica enterica and Escherichia coli. These methyl-accepting chemotaxis receptors are one of the first components in the sensory excitation and adaptation responses in bacteria, which act to alter swimming behaviour upon detection of specific chemicals. Use of the MCP allows bacteria to detect concentrations of molecules in the extracellular matrix so that the bacteria may smooth swim or tumble accordingly. If the bacterium detects rising levels of attractants (nutrients) or declining levels of repellents (toxins), the bacterium will continue swimming forward, or smooth swimming. If the bacterium detects declining levels of attractants or rising levels of repellents, the bacterium will tumble and re-orient itself in a new direction. In this manner, a bacterium may swim towards nutrients and away from toxins
Chemorepulsion is the directional movement of a cell away from a substance. Of the two directional varieties of chemotaxis, chemoattraction has been studied to a much greater extent. Only recently have the key components of the chemorepulsive pathway been elucidated. The exact mechanism is still being investigated, and its constituents are currently being explored as likely candidates for immunotherapies.
Neutrophil swarming is a type of coordinated neutrophil movement that acts in response to acute tissue inflammation or infection. The term comes from the swarming characteristics of insects that are similar to the behavior of neutrophils in response to an infection. These processes have mostly been studied in tissues of mice and studies of mouse ear tissue has proved to be very effective at observing neutrophil movement. Neutrophil swarming typically aggregates at surface layers of tissue so the thin nature of the mouse ear tissue makes for a good model to study this process. Additionally, zebrafish larvae have been used for the study of neutrophil movement mainly because of their translucence during the first few days of their development. With transgenic lines that fluorescently label zebrafish neutrophils, the cells can be tracked by epifluorescence or confocal microscopy during the course of an inflammatory response. Through this method, specific subpopulations of neutrophils can be tracked and their origin and fate during the induction and resolution of inflammation is observed. Another advantage for using zebrafish to study neutrophil swarming is that adaptive immunity for this organism does not develop until around 4 weeks of age. This allows for the study of neutrophil movement and other host immune responses independent of adaptive immune responses.
Robert Insall is the professor of computational cell biology at University College London and the University of Glasgow. His work focuses on how eukaryotic cells move, and how they choose the direction in which they move. He is known for demonstrating that cells can spread in the body and find their way through mazes by creating gradients of chemoattractants.
Michael Eisenbach is an Israeli biochemist who specializes in the navigation mechanisms of bacterial and sperm cells. He is a professor emeritus at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Rehovot, Israel. He discovered that sperm cells (spermatozoa) of mammals are actively guided to the egg. This opened the research field of mammalian sperm navigation. He demonstrated that the active navigation entails chemotaxis and thermotaxis. He made seminal contributions to the understanding of these two processes at the molecular, physiological and behavioural levels, as well as contributing to our understanding of the molecular mechanism of bacterial chemotaxis.
Run-and-tumble motion is a movement pattern exhibited by certain bacteria and other microscopic agents. It consists of an alternating sequence of "runs" and "tumbles": during a run, the agent propels itself in a fixed direction, and during a tumble, it remains stationary while it reorients itself in preparation for the next run.