Theoretical Models for Bacterial Motion and Chemotaxis

The motion of motile living cells is a complex phenomenon that arises as the consequence of a cascade mechanism initiated by the presence of an attractant in the medium. Chemotaxis leads to motility processes at the microscopic level of individual cells and to migration phenomena at the macroscopic level of large numbers of microorganisms. The present review is essentially devoted to the latter phenomena, which have attracted the most attention from the theoretical viewpoint. Those experiments for which theoretical analyses have been proposed are briefly reviewed. The corresponding models are reviewed and discussed. A succinct literature survey is presented in which the bibliographical references are classified according to the different aspects of the subject.SCOPUS: ch.b