Mathematical modelling of the agr operon in Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract:

Staphylococcus aureus is a pathogenic bacterium that utilises quorum sensing (QS), a cell-to-cell signalling mechanism, to enhance its ability to cause disease. QS allows the bacteria to monitor their surroundings and the size of their population, and S. aureus makes use of this to regulate the production of virulence factors. Here we describe a mathematical model of this QS system and perform a detailed time-dependent asymptotic analysis in order to clarify the roles of the distinct interactions that make up the QS process, demonstrating which reactions dominate the behaviour of the system at various timepoints. We couple this analysis with numerical simulations and are thus able to gain insight into how a large population of S. aureus shifts from a relatively harmless state to a highly virulent one, focussing on the need for the three distinct phases which form the feedback loop of this particular QS system.

SEEK ID: https://fairdomhub.org/publications/35

PubMed ID: 19688348

Projects: COSMIC

Publication type: Not specified

Journal: J Math Biol

Citation:

Date Published: 19th Feb 2009

Registered Mode: Not specified

Authors: , , Adrian J Koerber, Paul Williams

help Submitter
Activity

Views: 5026

Created: 1st Jun 2010 at 13:12

Last updated: 8th Dec 2022 at 17:25

help Tags

This item has not yet been tagged.

help Attributions

None

Powered by
(v.1.14.2)
Copyright © 2008 - 2023 The University of Manchester and HITS gGmbH