Polysaccharide breakdown products drive degradation-dispersal cycles of foraging bacteria through changes in metabolism and motility.

Most of Earth's biomass is composed of polysaccharides. During biomass decomposition, polysaccharides are degraded by heterotrophic bacteria as a nutrient and energy source and are thereby partly remineralized into CO. As polysaccharides are heterogeneously distributed in nature, following the colonization and degradation of a polysaccharide hotspot the cells need to reach new polysaccharide hotspots.