Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Orientational Control is an Efficient Control Mechanism for Phase Switching in the E coli fim System

Chu, Dominique, Blomfield, Ian C. (2006) Orientational Control is an Efficient Control Mechanism for Phase Switching in the E coli fim System. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 244 (3). pp. 541-551. ISSN 0022-5193. (doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.08.016) (KAR id:14516)

Abstract

The 'fim' system in 'E. coli' controls the expression of type-1 fimbriae. These are hair-like structures that can be used to attach to host cells. Fimbriation is controlled by a mechanism called ''orientational control''. We present two families of models for orientational control to understand the details of how it works. We find that the main benefits of orientational control are that (i) it allows rapid adjustment of fimbriation levels in response to a change of environmental conditions while (ii) keeping the overall frequencies with which a cell switches between the fimbriate state and the afimbriate state low. The main reason for the efficiency of orientational control in regulation of fimbriation levels is that it keeps the system far from its steady state.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.08.016
Uncontrolled keywords: Phase variation; fim; Steady-state; E. coli
Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science) > QA 76 Software, computer programming,
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: Dominique Chu
Date Deposited: 24 Nov 2008 18:04 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:52 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/14516 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Chu, Dominique.

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3706-2905
CReDIT Contributor Roles:

Blomfield, Ian C..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.