Revisiting bistability in the lysis/lysogeny circuit of bacteriophage lambda.

ABSTRACT: The lysis/lysogeny switch of bacteriophage lambda serves as a paradigm for binary cell fate decision, long-term maintenance of cellular state and stimulus-triggered switching between states. In the literature, the system is often referred to as "bistable." However, it remains unclear whether this term provides an accurate description or is instead a misnomer. Here we address this question directly. We first quantify transcriptional regulation governing lysogenic maintenance using a single-cell fluorescence reporter. We then use the single-cell data to derive a stochastic theoretical model for the underlying regulatory network. We use the model to predict the steady states of the system and then validate these predictions experimentally. Specifically, a regime of bistability, and the result

SUBMITTER: Bednarz M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4070997 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature