The Oxford English Dictionary defines chemotaxis as "the orientated or directional movement of a motile cell or organism in response to a gradient of concentration of a particular substance." We are particularly interested in chemotaxis by the bacterium E. coli, which swims towards favourable environments and nutrients (attractants) and away from unfavourable environments and toxins (repellents) using rapidly rotating, propeller-like, helical flagella. You can find further details of different aspects of bacterial chemotaxis at the following sites:
| Site designed by Matthew Levin. This page updated 24 October 2012. |
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