TitleSelf-organized periodicity of protein clusters in growing bacteria.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsWang, H, Wingreen, NS, Mukhopadhyay, R
JournalPhys Rev Lett
Volume101
Issue21
Pagination218101
Date Published2008 Nov 21
KeywordsAlgorithms, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli Proteins, Models, Biological, Monte Carlo Method, Receptors, Formyl Peptide, Stochastic Processes, Thermodynamics
Abstract

Chemotaxis receptors in E. coli form clusters at the cell poles and also laterally along the cell body, and this clustering plays an important role in signal transduction. Recently, experiments using fluorescence imaging have shown that, during cell growth, lateral clusters form at positions approximately periodically spaced along the cell body. In this Letter, we demonstrate within a lattice model that such spatial organization could arise spontaneously from a stochastic nucleation mechanism. The same mechanism may explain the recent observation of periodic aggregates of misfolded proteins in E. coli.

Alternate JournalPhys. Rev. Lett.