1. F. Menolascina, R. Rusconi, V.I. Fernandez, S.P. Smriga, Z. Aminzare, E. D. Sontag, and R. Stocker. Logarithmic sensing in Bacillus subtilis aerotaxis. Nature Systems Biology and Applications, 3:16036-, 2017. [PDF] Keyword(s): adaptation, biological adaptation, perfect adaptation, Aerotaxis, chemotaxis, scale invariance, FCD, fold-change detection, B. subtilis, systems biology. Abstract:

   Aerotaxis, the directed migration along oxygen gradients, allows many microorganisms to locate favorable oxygen concentrations. Despite oxygen's fundamental role for life, even key aspects of aerotaxis remain poorly understood. In Bacillus subtilis, for example, there is conflicting evidence of whether migration occurs to the maximal oxygen concentration available or to an optimal intermediate one, and how aerotaxis can be maintained over a broad range of conditions. Using precisely controlled oxygen gradients in a microfluidic device, spanning the full spectrum of conditions from quasi-anoxic to oxic (60nM-1mM), we resolved B. subtilis' ``oxygen preference conundrum'' by demonstrating consistent migration towards maximum oxygen concentrations. Surprisingly, the strength of aerotaxis was largely unchanged over three decades in oxygen concentration (131nM-196mM). We discovered that in this range B. subtilis responds to the logarithm of the oxygen concentration gradient, a log-sensing strategy that affords organisms high sensitivity over a wide range of conditions.

1. F. Menolascina, R. Stocker, and E.D. Sontag. In-vivo identification and control of aerotaxis in Bacillus subtilis. In Proc. IEEE Conf. Decision and Control, Dec. 2016, pages 764-769, 2016. [PDF] Keyword(s): identification, systems biology, aerotaxis, B. subtilis. Abstract:

   Combining in-vivo experiments with system identification methods, we determine a simple model of aerotaxis in B. subtilis, and we subsequently employ this model in order to compute the sequence of oxygen gradients needed in order to achieve set-point regulation with respect to a signal tracking the center of mass of the bacterial population. We then successfully validate both the model and the control scheme, by showing that in-vivo positioning control can be achieved via the application of the precomputed inputs in-vivo in an open-loop configuration.

This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders.

This document was translated from BibT_EX by bibtex2html