TitleChemotaxis in Escherichia coli: a molecular model for robust precise adaptation.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsHansen, CH, Endres, RG, Wingreen, NS
JournalPLoS Comput Biol
Volume4
Issue1
Paginatione1
Date Published2008 Jan
KeywordsAdaptation, Physiological, Bacterial Proteins, Chemotaxis, Computer Simulation, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli Proteins, Methyltransferases, Models, Biological
Abstract

The chemotaxis system in the bacterium Escherichia coli is remarkably sensitive to small relative changes in the concentrations of multiple chemical signals over a broad range of ambient concentrations. Interactions among receptors are crucial to this sensitivity as is precise adaptation, the return of chemoreceptor activity to prestimulus levels in a constant chemoeffector environment. Precise adaptation relies on methylation and demethylation of chemoreceptors by the enzymes CheR and CheB, respectively. Experiments indicate that when transiently bound to one receptor, these enzymes act on small assistance neighborhoods (AN) of five to seven receptor homodimers. In this paper, we model a strongly coupled complex of receptors including dynamic CheR and CheB acting on ANs. The model yields sensitive response and precise adaptation over several orders of magnitude of attractant concentrations and accounts for different responses to aspartate and serine. Within the model, we explore how the precision of adaptation is limited by small AN size as well as by CheR and CheB kinetics (including dwell times, saturation, and kinetic differences among modification sites) and how these kinetics contribute to noise in complex activity. The robustness of our dynamic model for precise adaptation is demonstrated by randomly varying biochemical parameters.

Alternate JournalPLoS Comput. Biol.