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Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation

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Relationship between cellular response and behavioral variability in bacterial chemotaxis.

Thierry Emonet¹, Philippe Cluzel

¹Department of Physics, Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, and The James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Gordon Center for Integrative Science, 929 East 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. thierry.emonet@yale.edu

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|February 27, 2008

Summary

Bacterial chemotaxis in Escherichia coli exhibits both population-level adaptation and single-cell fluctuations. This study reveals that the ultrasensitive nature of receptor-kinase signaling architecture drives this coexistence, optimizing bacterial navigation.

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Measurement of Cellular Chemotaxis with ECIS/Taxis

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Published on: April 1, 2012

Area of Science:

Microbiology
Biophysics
Systems Biology

Background:

Bacterial chemotaxis in Escherichia coli is a model system for signal transduction.
This system displays both population-level adaptation and significant single-cell behavioral variability.
The coexistence of these behaviors has been observed but not fully explained by system architecture.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between the architecture of the adaptive system and the observed coexistence of behaviors in bacterial chemotaxis.
To determine how ultrasensitivity in receptor-kinase signaling influences cellular behavior and adaptive responses.
To explore the role of the kinase activation curve's steepness in controlling behavioral variability and response timing.

Main Methods:

Development and application of a unified stochastic model for bacterial chemotaxis.
Analysis of methylation and demethylation cycles regulating receptor-kinase activity.
Large-scale simulations using digital bacteria to model chemotaxis network behavior.

Main Results:

The ultrasensitive nature of receptor-kinase signaling, operating outside first-order kinetics, leads to a sigmoidal activation curve.
The steepness of this sigmoidal curve simultaneously governs single-cell behavioral variability and the duration of adaptive responses.
Simulations indicate the chemotaxis network is tuned to maximize both random cell spread and attractant gradient response.

Conclusions:

The coexistence of robust population adaptation and single-cell fluctuations in bacterial chemotaxis is a direct consequence of the adaptive system's architecture.
The steepness of the receptor-kinase activation curve is a critical parameter controlling cellular behavior, variability, and response dynamics.
Behavioral variability in nonstimulated cells can inform the timing of responses to small stimuli, highlighting a fundamental adaptive strategy.