Theoretical Prediction of Disrupted Min Oscillation in Flattened Escherichia coli.

ABSTRACT: The dynamics of the Min-protein system help Escherichia coli regulate the process of cell division by identifying the center of the cell. While this system exhibits robust bipolar oscillations in wild-type cell shapes, recent experiments have shown that when the cells are mechanically deformed into wide, flattened out, irregular shapes, the spatial regularity of these oscillations breaks down. We employ widely used stochastic and deterministic models of the Min system to simulate cells with flattened shapes. The deterministic model predicts strong bipolar oscillations, in contradiction with the experimentally observed behavior, while the stochastic model, which is based on the same reaction-diffusion equations, predicts more spatially irregular oscillations. We further report simulations o

SUBMITTER: Schulte JB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4601790 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature