Alfiniyah, Cicik Alfiniyah, Bees, Martin Alan and Wood, Andrew James orcid.org/0000-0002-6119-852X (2017) Pulse generation in the quorum machinery of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology. pp. 1360-1389. ISSN 1522-9602
Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium that is responsible for a wide range of infections in humans. Colonies employ quo- rum sensing (QS) to coordinate gene expressions, including virulence factors, swarming motility and complex social traits. The QS signalling system of P. aeruginosa is known to involve multiple control components, notably the las, rhl and pqs systems. In this paper, we examine the las system and, in partic- ular, the repressive interaction of rsaL, an embedded small regulative protein, employing recent biochemical information to aid model construction. Using analytic methods we show how this feature can give rise to excitable pulse generation in this subsystem with important downstream consequences for rhamnolipid production. We adopt a symmetric competitive inhibition to cap- ture the binding in the lasI-rsaL intergenic region and show our results are not dependent on the exact choice of this functional form. Furthermore, we exam- ine the coupling of lasR to the rhl system, the impact of the predicted capacity for pulse generation and the biophysical consequences of this behaviour. We hypothesise that the interaction between the las and rhl systems may provide a quorum memory to enable cells to trigger rhamnolipid production only when they are at the edge of an established aggregation.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Mathematics (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Biology (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 22 May 2017 10:00 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jan 2025 00:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11538-017-0288-z |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s11538-017-0288-z |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:116745 |
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