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Bacterial chemotaxis and entropy production

The thermodynamic point of view is used to consider bacterial chemotaxis in a capillary tube, and entropy production is calculated for a migrating band of bacteria. It is found that the speed of the migrating band is a decreasing function of the starting concentration of the metabolizable attractant. The experimentally found dependence of speed on the starting concentration of galactose, glucose and oxygen is fitted with power law functions. It is found that the corresponding exponents lie within the theoretically predicted interval. The effect of the reproduction of bacteria on band speed is considered, too. The acceleration of the band, owing to the reproduction rate of bacteria, is predicted. The relationship between chemotaxis, the maximum entropy production principle and the formation of self-organizing structure is briefly discussed.

bacterial chemotaxis; entropy production

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