Wasnik Vaibhav, Wang Hui, Wingreen Ned S, Mukhopadhyay Ranjan
Department of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610.
Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.
New J Phys. 2017;19(10). doi: 10.1088/1367-2630/aa8247. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
Chemotaxic receptors in bacteria form clusters at cell poles and also laterally, and this clustering plays an important role in signal transduction. These clusters were found to be periodically arranged on the surface of the bacterium Escherichia coli, independent of any known positioning mechanism. In this work we extend a model based on diffusion and aggregation to more realistic geometries and present a means based on "bursty" protein production to distinguish spontaneous positioning from an independently existing positioning mechanism. We also consider the case of isotropic cellular growth and characterize the degree of order arising spontaneously. Our model could also be relevant for other examples of periodically positioned protein clusters in bacteria.
细菌中的趋化性受体在细胞两极以及侧面形成簇，这种簇集在信号转导中起着重要作用。人们发现这些簇在大肠杆菌表面呈周期性排列，且独立于任何已知的定位机制。在这项工作中，我们将基于扩散和聚集的模型扩展到更实际的几何形状，并提出一种基于“爆发式”蛋白质产生的方法，以区分自发定位和独立存在的定位机制。我们还考虑了各向同性细胞生长的情况，并表征自发产生的有序程度。我们的模型也可能适用于细菌中其他周期性定位的蛋白质簇的例子。
