A novel approach to chemotaxis: Active particles guided by internal clocks

¹ Université Côte d'Azur, Laboratoire J. A. Dieudonné, UMR 7351 CNRS - Parc Valrose, F-06108 Nice Cedex 02, France
² Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam - Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse 24/25, Haus 28, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany

^(a) These authors contributed equally to this work.
^(b) Fernando.Peruani@univ-cotedazur.fr

Received: 30 March 2020
Accepted: 22 June 2020

Abstract

Motivated by the observation of non-exponential run-time distributions of bacterial swimmers, we propose a minimal phenomenological model for taxis of active particles whose motion is controlled by an internal clock. The ticking of the clock depends on an external concentration field, e.g., a chemical substance. We demonstrate that these particles can detect concentration gradients and respond to them by moving up- or down-gradient depending on the clock design, albeit measurements of these fields are purely local in space and instantaneous in time. Altogether, our results open a new route in the study of directional navigation: we show that the use of a clock to control motility actions represents a generic and versatile toolbox to engineer behavioral responses to external cues, such as light, chemical, or temperature gradients.