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Impact of multiple co-occurring chemoattractants on bacterial chemotaxis is not understood

Determine how the simultaneous presence of multiple chemoattractant compounds in phytoplankton exudates jointly modulates marine bacterial chemotactic responses, including potential interactions among cues and deviations from single-compound responses.

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Background

The analysis treats chemoattractants via an effective diffusivity and focuses on single-compound sensing performance, while actual exudates are chemically diverse and variable in composition and abundance.

The authors explicitly state that the effects of co-occurring compounds on chemotactic behavior remain mostly not understood, highlighting a key ecological and mechanistic knowledge gap.

References

We only model chemoattractants through their diffusivity, but different bacteria are attracted to distinct compounds with varying sensitivity, many chemoattractants can drive behavioral and metabolic shifts in bacteria, and how the co-occurrence of multiple compounds may impact chemotactic responses is still mostly not understood.

— Slower swimming promotes chemotactic encounters between bacteria and small phytoplankton (2410.03641 - Foffi et al., 4 Oct 2024) in Discussion (assumptions and limitations paragraph)