Dresden 2014 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 24: Systems biology

BP 24.4: Talk

Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 10:30–10:45, ZEU 250

A Biophysical Taxonomy of Quorum Sensing Networks — •Bastian Drees and Ilka Bischofs — BioQuant, Center for Quantitative Analysis of Molecular and Cellular Biosystems at Heidelberg University, Heidelberg

Bacteria control their collective behavior in response to population size by encoding information about cell density into a concentration of signaling molecules. To carry out this process, called quorum sensing (QS), bacteria use signaling networks that vary in their organization between different organisms. This diversity in the physical organization (transport mechanism, receptor location, etc.), potentially gives rise to classes of different QS architectures. To introduce a classification scheme we systematically studied the encoding properties of a comprehensive set of 116 generic signal generating network topologies focusing on their sensitivity and noise characteristics. Intimate relationships between architecture and encoder function can be employed to rationalize a hierarchical network classification scheme. Our model shows that almost all signal generating architectures are able to mediate QS. The resulting taxonomic scheme consists of two layers: One layer containing three basic encoder classes that are defined by a characteristic "core network motif" and that share the same qualitative noise and sensitivity behavior, independent of system parameters. The second layer contains five classes of architectures that are composed out of two core motifs and as a result can express complex and counter-intuitive encoding behaviors. Our analysis indicates that different QS systems might enable bacteria to conduct different types of QS.