E. coli chemotaxis is information-limited

Abstract

Organisms must acquire and use environmental information to guide their behaviors. However, it is unclear whether and how information quantitatively limits behavioral performance. Here, we relate information to behavioral performance in Escherichia coli chemotaxis. First, we derive a theoretical limit for the maximum achievable gradient-climbing speed given a cell's information acquisition rate. Next, we measure cells' gradient-climbing speeds and the rate of information acquisition by the chemotaxis pathway. We find that E. coli make behavioral decisions with much less than the 1 bit required to determine whether they are swimming up-gradient. However, they use this information efficiently, performing near the theoretical limit. Thus, information can limit organisms' performance, and sensory-motor pathways may have evolved to efficiently use information from the environment.

17 pages of main text, 3 main text figures, 66 pages of supplementary text, 10 supplementary figures

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• Planetary Scale Information Transmission in the Biosphere and Technosphere: Limits and Evolution
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• Information bounds production in replicator systems
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• Information Transmission via Molecular Communication in Astrobiological Environments
• Physical limits on chemical sensing in bounded domains
• Is E. coli good at chemotaxis?
• Information Thermodynamics for Deterministic Chemical Reaction Networks
• Theoretical Analysis of Resource-Induced Phase Transitions in Estimation Strategies