title: Interplay of two quorum sensing regulation systems of Vibrio fischeri.
abstract: Many bacteria developed a possibility to recognise aspects of their environment or to communicate with each other by chemical signals. An important strategy is the so-called quorum sensing (QS), a regulatory mechanism for the gene expression, where the bacteria measure their own cell density by means of this signalling pathway. One of the best-studied species using QS is the marine luminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri which is considered here as a model organism. The two main regulatory pathways (lux and ain) are combined to a regulation system, the dynamics is modelled by an ODE system. This system is analysed thoroughly, considering stationary states, dynamical behaviour and the possible biological meaning of it. The influence of different parameter values on the behaviour is examined, the same basic system is able to reflect the peculiarities of different bacteria strains (respectively, their mutants).
authors.affiliation: GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Biomathematics and Biometry, Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764 Oberschleissheim, Germany. christina.kuttler@gsf.de
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kuttler
authors.forename: Burkhard A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Hense
mesh_terms: D048908:Aliivibrio fischeri / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D015870:Gene Expression; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D049449:Luminescence; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation; D053038:Quorum Sensing / Q000502:physiology*