1 research outputs found
Correlated Phenotypic Transitions to Competence in Bacterial Colonies
Genetic competence is a phenotypic state of a bacterial cell in which it is
capable of importing DNA, presumably to hasten its exploration of alternate
genes in its quest for survival under stress. Recently, it was proposed that
this transition is uncorrelated among different cells in the colony. Motivated
by several discovered signaling mechanisms which create colony-level responses,
we present a model for the influence of quorum-sensing signals on a colony of
B. Subtilis cells during the transition to genetic competence. Coupling to the
external signal creates an effective inhibitory mechanism, which results in
anti-correlation between the cycles of adjacent cells. We show that this
scenario is consistent with the specific experimental measurement, which fails
to detect some underlying collective signaling mechanisms. Rather, we suggest
other parameters that should be used to verify the role of a quorum-sensing
signal. We also study the conditions under which phenotypic spatial patterns
may emerge