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# Chemotactic predator-prey dynamics

## Details

**Authors** Sengupta et al.

**Year** 2018

**Publisher** Physical Review

**Discipline** Biology

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.83.031914) 
10.1103/PhysRevE.83.031914

## In authors' words

### Abstract

A discrete chemotactic predator-prey model is proposed in which the prey secrets a diffusing chemical which is sensed by the predator and vice versa. Two dynamical states corresponding to catching and escaping are identified and it is shown that steady hunting is unstable. For the escape process, the predator-prey distance is diffusive for short times but exhibits a transient subdiffusive behavior which scales as a power law t¹/³ with time t and ultimately crosses over to diffusion again. This allows us to classify the motility and dynamics of various predatory microbes and phagocytes. In particular, there is a distinct region in the parameter space where they prove to be infallible predators.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

Understanding the dynamics of hunting chemotactic organisms.

### What they found (results)

The predator and the prey both use a gradient-like sensing method where they use the concentration of the Distinguished chemical to search out their prey, or to escape.

## Commentary

### In short

The predator and the prey both use a gradient-like sensing method where they use the concentration of the Distinguished chemical to search out their prey, or to escape.

### In more detail

Sengupta and colleagues (2018) modeled the chase between predator and prey as a problem of chemical distinction-making. Rather than relying on sight, both organisms navigate by sensing gradients — reading the rising or falling concentration of a distinguished chemical signal to home in on a target or to flee from a threat. The predator distinguishes the chemical trail of its prey from the noise of the surrounding environment, while the prey distinguishes the chemical signature of the predator in order to escape.

What emerges is a dynamic pursuit governed entirely by each organism's ability to tell one chemical “other” from another. Like the broader phenomenon of chemotaxis, this work underscores that the Distinction pattern is not a uniquely neural act: single-celled and simple organisms draw identity–other distinctions in chemical space, reinforcing the claim that distinction-making is a universal structure found throughout nature, not only in minds.

**Patterns it shows** D

**How to cite this** Sengupta et al. (2018). Chemotactic predator-prey dynamics. Physical Review.