A stochastic model of Min oscillations in Escherichia coli and Min protein segregation during cell division

Abstract

The Min system in Escherichia coli directs division to the centre of the cell through pole-to-pole oscillations of the MinCDE proteins. We present a one dimensional stochastic model of these oscillations which incorporates membrane polymerisation of MinD into linear chains. This model reproduces much of the observed phenomenology of the Min system, including pole-to-pole oscillations of the Min proteins. We then apply this model to investigate the Min system during cell division. Oscillations continue initially unaffected by the closing septum, before cutting off rapidly. The fractions of Min proteins in the daughter cells vary widely, from 50%-50% up to 85%-15% of the total from the parent cell, suggesting that there may be another mechanism for regulating these levels in vivo.

19 pages, 12 figures (25 figure files); published at http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/physbio

References in corpus (4)

• Pattern formation inside bacteria: fluctuations due to low copy number of proteins
• Cellular organization by self-organization : mechanisms and models for Min protein dynamics
• Min-oscillations in Escherichia coli induced by interactions of membrane-bound proteins
• Stochastic model for Soj relocation dynamics in Bacillus subtilis

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Fundamental Limits to Position Determination by Concentration Gradients
• Intra- and intercellular fluctuations in Min-protein dynamics decrease with cell length
• Trade-offs in delayed information transmission in biochemical networks
• Predictions from a stochastic polymer model for the MinDE dynamics in E.coli
• Stuttering Min oscillations within E. coli bacteria: A stochastic polymerization model
• Modeling partitioning of Min proteins between daughter cells after septation in Escherichia coli
• Dissipation in non-steady state regulatory circuits