TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of Noise in Quorum Sensing
AU - Cox, Chris D.
AU - Peterson, Gregory D.
AU - Allen, Michael S.
AU - Lancaster, Joseph M.
AU - McCollum, James M.
AU - Austin, Derek
AU - Yan, Ling
AU - Sayler, Gary S.
AU - Simpson, Michael L.
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - Noise may play a pivotal role in gene circuit functionality, as demonstrated for the genetic switch in the bacterial phage A. Like the A switch, bacterial quorum sensing (QS) systems operate within a population and contain a bistable switching element, making it likely that noise plays a functional role in QS circuit operation. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the noise behavior of QS systems is needed. We have developed a set of tools generally applicable to the analysis of gene circuits, with an emphasis on investigations in the frequency domain (FD), that we apply here to the QS system in the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. We demonstrate that a tight coupling between exact stochastic simulation and FD analysis provides insights into the structure/function relationships in the QS circuit. Furthermore, we argue that a noise analysis is incomplete without consideration of the power spectral densities (PSDs) of the important molecular output signals. As an example we consider reversible reactions in the QS circuit, and show through analysis and exact stochastic simulation that these circuits make significant and dynamic modifications to the noise spectra. In particular, we demonstrate a "whitening" effect, which occurs as the noise is processed through these reversible reactions.
AB - Noise may play a pivotal role in gene circuit functionality, as demonstrated for the genetic switch in the bacterial phage A. Like the A switch, bacterial quorum sensing (QS) systems operate within a population and contain a bistable switching element, making it likely that noise plays a functional role in QS circuit operation. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the noise behavior of QS systems is needed. We have developed a set of tools generally applicable to the analysis of gene circuits, with an emphasis on investigations in the frequency domain (FD), that we apply here to the QS system in the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. We demonstrate that a tight coupling between exact stochastic simulation and FD analysis provides insights into the structure/function relationships in the QS circuit. Furthermore, we argue that a noise analysis is incomplete without consideration of the power spectral densities (PSDs) of the important molecular output signals. As an example we consider reversible reactions in the QS circuit, and show through analysis and exact stochastic simulation that these circuits make significant and dynamic modifications to the noise spectra. In particular, we demonstrate a "whitening" effect, which occurs as the noise is processed through these reversible reactions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0142106505&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/153623103322452422
DO - 10.1089/153623103322452422
M3 - Article
C2 - 14583119
AN - SCOPUS:0142106505
SN - 1536-2310
VL - 7
SP - 317
EP - 334
JO - OMICS A Journal of Integrative Biology
JF - OMICS A Journal of Integrative Biology
IS - 3
ER -