title: Orientational control is an efficient control mechanism for phase switching in the E. coli fim system.
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.
authors.affiliation: Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, CT2 7NF, Canterbury, UK. D.F.Chu@kent.ac.uk
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Ian C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Blomfield
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001422:Bacterial Adhesion; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000502:physiology*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000635:transmission; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D008390:Markov Chains; D008954:Models, Biological; D013269:Stochastic Processes