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Updated: May 7, 2026

Assessment of Dictyostelium discoideum Response to Acute Mechanical Stimulation

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Published on: November 9, 2017

Adaptation dynamics in densely clustered chemoreceptors.

William Pontius¹, Michael W Sneddon, Thierry Emonet

¹Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America ; Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.

Plos Computational Biology

|September 27, 2013

Summary

Spatial organization of bacterial chemotaxis receptors is crucial for adaptation. Distributive methylation leads to fluctuations, enabling robust signaling and enhanced environmental exploration.

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Method for Efficient Refolding and Purification of Chemoreceptor Ligand Binding Domain

Method for Efficient Refolding and Purification of Chemoreceptor Ligand Binding Domain

Published on: December 12, 2017

Area of Science:

Cellular Biology
Biophysics
Systems Biology

Background:

Transmembrane receptors often cluster in sensory systems, potentially aiding signal amplification and integration.
Receptor clustering impacts signaling kinetics due to the necessary localization of cytoplasmic enzymes for modification.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how spatial organization of receptors influences signaling dynamics at rest and during stimuli.
To model the chemotaxis pathway in Escherichia coli, focusing on adaptation mechanisms.

Main Methods:

Utilized a novel stochastic simulation approach.
Developed an analytical model to explain observed phenomena.

Main Results:

Demonstrated that distributive receptor methylation is essential for successful adaptation to stimuli.
Showed that this process leads to significant fluctuations in receptor activity in the steady state.
Explained how saturated enzyme kinetics and fluctuations coexist with a robustly adapted state, independent of constituent expression levels.

Conclusions:

Spatial clustering and distributive methylation are key for robust adaptation and functional robustness in bacterial chemotaxis.
Large fluctuations in receptor activity, arising from enzyme localization and saturated kinetics, may enhance cellular exploration and gradient tracking.