TY - JOUR
T1 - Mathematical modelling of the agr operon in Staphylococcus aureus
AU - Jabbari, S.
AU - King, J.R.
AU - Koerber, A.J.
AU - Williams, P.
N1 - MEDLINE® is the source for the MeSH terms of this document.
PY - 2010/1/1
Y1 - 2010/1/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=yv4JPVwI&eid=2-s2.0-77952293299&md5=f8068dc06becf760561dd1f532c7e867
U2 - 10.1007/s00285-009-0291-6
DO - 10.1007/s00285-009-0291-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77952293299
SN - 0303-6812
VL - 61
SP - 17
EP - 54
JO - Journal of Mathematical Biology
JF - Journal of Mathematical Biology
IS - 1
ER -