The difference between taxis and kinesis?

Question

Could someone explain, I've read previous answers to this similar question and I have gathered what I can. However, I was wondering if there is anything else that can be said to broaden my knowledge on these two topics.

Examples are great as well! Thanks.

Answer 1

Taxis is a specific, directed motion in response to a stimulus, whereas kinesis is a random, undirected motion in response to a stimulus.

A prime example of taxis would be the photosynthetic protist, Euglena.  In response to light, Euglena moves toward the light source.  The stimulus causes a specific movement in a particular direction.  Plants do the same thing, except their motion isn't as obvious as Euglena's.  In response to light, plants grow in the direction of the light source.  An example involving animals might be a male moth responding to a female moth's pheremones.  The male moth specifically flies in the direction of greater pheremone concentration so that it can find its potential mate.

Taxis usually involves motion in the direction of the stimulus or away from the stimulus.  When toward the stimulus, it is called positive taxis, and when away from the stimulus, it is called negative taxis.  The two examples with photosynthetic organisms are examples of positive phototaxis.  The moth example involves positive chemotaxis.

Kinesis, on the other hand, is completely random.  When you turn on the lights and cockroaches scatter every which way, they are exhibiting kinesis.  Rather than running toward or away from the stimulus (the light) in a specific, directed manner, the stimulus just causes them to bolt in a completely random direction.

The link below gives a very brief discussion of the terms, as well as some more examples, specifically of taxis.  It also provides some of the prefixes used with -taxis, such as photo- and chemo- from the previous examples.

Answer 2

Kinesis is the movement of an organism in response to a stimulus. This movement is NON-DIRECTIONAL, and is usually proportional to the intensity of the stimulus.

ex. A single celled organism will move slower in a medium with a high concentration of nutrients to enable it to stay within this environment longer.

Taxis is a DIRECTIONAL movement towards (positive) or away (negative) from a stimulus, this can also be proportional to the intensity of the stimulus.

ex. A single celled organism with light sensing receptor will move towards that light to facilitate photosynthesis.

Answer 3

hmm