Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Bacterial chemotaxis

United we sense ⃛

Nature volume 393, pages 19–21 (1998)Cite this article

Biological systems show remarkably sensitive responses to a wide range of environmental signals. The visual system, for example, can be excited by a single photon, yet can also detect contrasts over a 10,000-fold range of light intensities. How is this impressive combination of sensitivity and wide dynamic range achieved?

On page 85 of this issue1, Bray, Levin and Morton-Firth describe how they have studied this question in the context of bacterial chemotaxis, a system that has emerged as a prototype for investigating mechanisms by which cells sense and process information about their surroundings. Bacteria such as Escherichia coli can sense chemical attractants over a concentration range of several orders of magnitude, responding even to small signals in which a minute fraction of the chemotaxis receptors bind ligand.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The chemotactic network.

References

  1. Bray, D., Levin, M. D. & Morton-Firth, C. J. Nature 393, 85–88 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pinkas-Kramarski, R.et al. EMBO J. 16, 2452–2467 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Riese, D. J. & Stern, D. J. BioEssays 20, 41–48 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Germain, R. N. Curr. Biol. 7, R640-R644 (1997).

  5. Maddock, J. R. & Shapiro, L. Science 259, 1717–1723 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Stock, J. B. Science 274, 370–371 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Liu, Y., Levit, M., Lurz, R., Surette, M. G. & Stock, J. B. EMBO J. 16, 7231–7240 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Stock, J. & Surette, M. in E. Coli and S. Typhimurium: Cellular and Molecular Biology (ed. Neidhart, F. C.) 1103-1129 (Am. Soc. Microbiol., Washington DC, 1996).

  9. Block, S. M., Segall, J. E. & Berg, H. C. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 83, 8987–8991 (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bray, D., Bourret, R. B. & Simon, M. I. Mol. Biol. Cell 4, 469–482 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hauri, D. C. & Ross, J. A. Biophys. J. 68, 708–722 (1995).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Spiro, P. A., Parkinson, J. S. & Othmar H. G. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 94, 7263–7268 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Barkai, N. & Leibler, S. Nature 387, 913–917 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Scharf, B. E., Fahrner, K. A., Turner, L. & Berg, H. C. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95, 201–206 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Physics and Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    N. Barkai & S. Leibler

Authors
  1. N. Barkai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. Leibler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Barkai, N., Leibler, S. United we sense ⃛. Nature 393, 19–21 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/29881

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/29881

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing