Modeling the chemotactic response of Escherichia coli to time-varying stimuli.

ABSTRACT: In their natural environment, cells need to extract useful information from complex temporal signals that vary over a wide range of intensities and time scales. Here, we study how such signals are processed by Escherichia coli during chemotaxis by developing a general theoretical model based on receptor adaptation and receptor-receptor cooperativity. Measured responses to various monotonic, oscillatory, and impulsive stimuli are all explained consistently by the underlying adaptation kinetics within this model. For exponential ramp signals, an analytical solution is discovered that reveals a remarkable connection between the dependence of kinase activity on the exponential ramp rate and the receptor methylation rate function. For exponentiated sine-wave signals, spectral analysis shows tha

SUBMITTER: Tu Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2551628 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature