Chemotaxis in uncertain environments: Hedging bets with multiple receptor types

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells are able to sense chemical gradients in a wide range of environments. We show that, if a cell is exposed to a highly variable environment, it may gain chemotactic accuracy by expressing multiple receptor types with varying affinities for the same signal, as found commonly in chemotaxing cells like Dictyostelium. As environment uncertainty is increased, there is a transition between cells preferring a single receptor type and a mixture of types—hedging their bets against the possibility of an unfavorable environment. We predict the optimal receptor affinities given a particular environment. In chemotaxing, cells may also integrate their measurement over time. Surprisingly, time integration with multiple receptor types is qualitatively different from gradient sensing by a single type—cells may extract orders of magnitude more chemotactic information than expected by naive time integration. Our results show when cells should express multiple receptor types to chemotax, and how cells can efficiently interpret the data from these receptors.