Simulation for Chemotactic Response of Paramecium Using Virtual Paramecium

Abstract

Paramecium exhibits an avoiding reaction when it senses repellent chemicals. Also, on sensing attractants, it accelerates its swimming velocity and remains in the area. Such a chemotactic response is called chemotaxis, that is the necessary mechanism to survive in complex natural environment. This paper proposes the computer model of Paramecium, Virtual Paramecium, based on biological knowledge, in order to understand the complex relationship between the Chemotactic behavior and the internal processing in cell. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the Virtual Paramecium can approximately realize the chemotactic behavior of actual Pramecium based on the information processing in cell.