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Orientational Control is an Efficient Control Mechanism for Phase Switching in the E coli fim System
D Chu and I C Blomfield
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 244(3):182-196, January 2007.Abstract
The 'fim' system in 'E. coli' controls the expression of type-1 fimbriae. These are hair-like structures that can be used to attach to host cells. Fimbriation is controlled by a mechanism called "orientational control". We present two families of models for orientational control to understand the details of how it works. We find that the main benefits of orientational control are that (i) it allows rapid adjustment of fimbriation levels in response to a change of environmental conditions while (ii) keeping the overall frequencies with which a cell switches between the fimbriate state and the afimbriate state low. The main reason for the efficiency of orientational control in regulation of fimbriation levels is that it keeps the system far from its steady state.
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@article{2705,
author = {D Chu and I C Blomfield},
title = {{O}rientational {C}ontrol is an {E}fficient {C}ontrol {M}echanism for {P}hase {S}witching in the {E} coli fim {S}ystem},
month = {January},
year = {2007},
pages = {182-196},
keywords = {determinacy analysis, Craig interpolants},
note = {},
doi = {},
url = {http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/pubs/2007/2705},
publication_type = {article},
submission_id = {2286_1207131702},
journal = {Journal of Theoretical Biology},
volume = {244},
number = {3},
}