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Nature Cell Biology 9, 1029–1031 (1 September 2007) | doi:10.1038/ncb0907-1029

Turning to the cold

Victor Sourjik & Ned S. Wingreen

An ideal temperature helps to optimize rates of growth and reproduction of all organisms, and could thereby improve their evolutionary fitness. It is not surprising, then, that most motile organisms, including bacteria (Escherichia coli), amoeba (Dictyostelium discoideum) and nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans), can follow temperature gradients by using a process called thermotaxis.