Diversity and performance of bacterial chemotactic strategies toward phytoplankton are unclear

Characterize and quantify the diversity of bacterial chemotactic behavioral strategies and determine their performance in searches toward phytoplankton-generated chemoattractant gradients across phytoplankton sizes and bacterial phenotypes.

Background

The paper computes an upper bound on encounter-rate enhancements using an idealized "perfect chemotaxer," without specifying organism-specific control strategies (e.g., run-and-tumble modulation, speed modulation, reversals).

The authors note multiple known strategies in the literature but state that their diversity and performance in the context of phytoplankton-driven chemotaxis remain unclear, motivating systematic comparative analysis.