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Modeling of Signal Transduction by the Quorum-Sensing Pathway in the Vibrios

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The Physical Basis of Bacterial Quorum Communication

Part of the book series: Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering ((BIOMEDICAL))

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Abstract

Several bacterial species have regulatory networks that enable global alterations in gene expression in response to changes in local cell density. This process, commonly referred to as quorum sensing, typically leads to the regulation of cooperative processes such as bioluminescence and biofilm formation. Here, we provide an overview of the quorum-sensing network in the marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi and focus on studies based on theoretical modeling approaches. These studies have led to testable predictions for experiments that can further elucidate roles of pathway elements such as small RNAs in shaping and fine-tuning the quorum-sensing response to changes in cell density. Furthermore, single-cell analysis has provided new insights into information processing by the quorum sensing pathway and opened up new avenues for future research.

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Acknowledgements

AB is thankful to CSIR (09/015(0375)/2009-EMR-I) for research fellowship. SKB acknowledges support from Bose Institute through Institutional Programme VI—Development of Systems Biology. RVK would like to acknowledge funding support from the NSF through award PHY-0957430.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Chemistry, Bose Institute, 93/1 A P C Road, Kolkata, 700 009, India

      Arnab Bandyopadhyay & Suman K. Banik

    2. Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0736, USA

      Andrew T. Fenley

    3. Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, 02125, USA

      Rahul V. Kulkarni

    Authors
    1. Arnab Bandyopadhyay
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    2. Andrew T. Fenley
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    3. Suman K. Banik
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    4. Rahul V. Kulkarni
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    Correspondence to Rahul V. Kulkarni .

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    Editors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

      Stephen J. Hagen

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    Bandyopadhyay, A., Fenley, A.T., Banik, S.K., Kulkarni, R.V. (2015). Modeling of Signal Transduction by the Quorum-Sensing Pathway in the Vibrios. In: Hagen, S. (eds) The Physical Basis of Bacterial Quorum Communication. Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1402-9_2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1402-9_2

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    • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1401-2

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