IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v393y1998i6680d10.1038_30018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Receptor clustering as a cellular mechanism to control sensitivity

Author

Listed:
  • Dennis Bray

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Matthew D. Levin

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Carl J. Morton-Firth

    (University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Chemotactic bacteria such as Escherichia coli can detect and respond to extremely low concentrations of attractants, concentrations of less than 5 nM in the case of aspartate1. They also sense gradients of attractants extending over five orders of magnitude in concentration (up to 1 mM aspartate)2,3. Here we consider the possibility that this combination of sensitivity and range of response depends on the clustering of chemotactic receptors on the surface of the bacterium4. We examine what will happen if ligand binding changes the activity of a receptor, propagating this change in activity to neighbouring receptors in a cluster5,6. Calculations based on these assumptions show that sensitivity to extracellular ligands increases with the extent of spread of activity through an array of receptors, but that the range of concentrations over which the array works is severely diminished. However, a combination of low threshold of response and wide dynamic range can be attained if the cell has both clusters and single receptors on its surface, particularly if the extent of activity spread can adapt to external conditions. A mechanism of this kind can account quantitatively for the sensitivity and response range of E. coli to aspartate.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis Bray & Matthew D. Levin & Carl J. Morton-Firth, 1998. "Receptor clustering as a cellular mechanism to control sensitivity," Nature, Nature, vol. 393(6680), pages 85-88, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:393:y:1998:i:6680:d:10.1038_30018
    DOI: 10.1038/30018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/30018
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/30018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Diana Clausznitzer & Olga Oleksiuk & Linda Løvdok & Victor Sourjik & Robert G Endres, 2010. "Chemotactic Response and Adaptation Dynamics in Escherichia coli," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(5), pages 1-11, May.
    2. Stephan Eismann & Robert G Endres, 2015. "Protein Connectivity in Chemotaxis Receptor Complexes," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Christopher T Lee & Justin G Laughlin & Nils Angliviel de La Beaumelle & Rommie E Amaro & J Andrew McCammon & Ravi Ramamoorthi & Michael Holst & Padmini Rangamani, 2020. "3D mesh processing using GAMer 2 to enable reaction-diffusion simulations in realistic cellular geometries," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(4), pages 1-35, April.
    4. Derek J Cashman & Davi R Ortega & Igor B Zhulin & Jerome Baudry, 2013. "Homology Modeling of the CheW Coupling Protein of the Chemotaxis Signaling Complex," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-9, August.
    5. Tristan Ursell & Kerwyn Casey Huang & Eric Peterson & Rob Phillips, 2007. "Cooperative Gating and Spatial Organization of Membrane Proteins through Elastic Interactions," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(5), pages 1-10, May.
    6. Robert G Endres & Joseph J Falke & Ned S Wingreen, 2007. "Chemotaxis Receptor Complexes: From Signaling to Assembly," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(7), pages 1-9, July.
    7. Kenneth L Ho & Heather A Harrington, 2010. "Bistability in Apoptosis by Receptor Clustering," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-9, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:393:y:1998:i:6680:d:10.1038_30018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.