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# Making sense of it all: bacterial chemotaxis

## Details

**Authors** Wadhams and Armitage

**Year** 2004

**Publisher** Nature Reviews: Molecular cell biology

**Discipline** Biology

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1024) 
10.1038/nrmicro1024

## In authors' words

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

To explain chemotaxis.

### What they found (results)

Bacteria can respond to numerous stimuli in their environments from the concentrations of nutrients, toxins, oxygen levels, or pH, to osmolarity (the concentration of a solution), to the intensity and wavelength of light.

## Commentary

### In short

The response requires the organism to Distinguish between the different types of stimuli.

### In more detail

This clearly includes non-neural organisms as well. Bacteria can respond to numerous stimuli in their environments from the concentrations of nutrients, toxins, oxygen levels, or pH, to osmolarity (the concentration of a solution), to the intensity and wavelength of light. This response requires the organism to Distinguish between the different types of stimuli. A common response is movement, but chemical secretion and even gene expression are also frequent responses. Chemotaxis benefits the cell, and the organism as a whole. For example, chemotaxis is at play in fetal development of the nervous system, tissue maintenance, tissue restoration and wound healing, as well as other processes such as pathogenicity (disease causing), symbiotic interactions, and the creation of biofilms. And, chemotaxis is critically important for the proper functioning of the immune system.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**How to cite this** Wadhams and Armitage (2004). Making sense of it all: bacterial chemotaxis. Nature Reviews: Molecular cell biology.