Noise-Induced Increase of Sensitivity in Bacterial Chemotaxis.

ABSTRACT: Flagellated bacteria, like Escherichia coli, can swim toward beneficial environments by modulating the rotational direction of their flagellar motors through a chemotaxis signal transduction network. The noise of this network, the random fluctuation of the intracellular concentration of the signal protein CheY-P with time, has been identified in studies of single cell behavioral variability, and found to be important in coordination of multiple motors in a bacterium and in enhancement of bacterial drift velocity in chemical gradients. Here, by comparing the behavioral difference between motors of wild-type E. coli and mutants without signal noise, we measured the magnitude of this noise in wild-type cells, and found that the noise increases the sensitivity of the bacterial chemotaxis netwo

SUBMITTER: He R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4968424 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature