title: Global convergence of quorum-sensing networks.
abstract: In many natural synchronization phenomena, communication between individual elements occurs not directly but rather through the environment. One of these instances is bacterial quorum sensing, where bacteria release signaling molecules in the environment which in turn are sensed and used for population coordination. Extending this motivation to a general nonlinear dynamical system context, this paper analyzes synchronization phenomena in networks where communication and coupling between nodes are mediated by shared dynamical quantities, typically provided by the nodes' environment. Our model includes the case when the dynamics of the shared variables themselves cannot be neglected or indeed play a central part. Applications to examples from system biology illustrate the approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems and Computer Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Napoli, Italy. giovanni.russo2@unina.it
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Jean Jacques E
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Slotine
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D008954:Models, Biological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D053038:Quorum Sensing