中国物理B ›› 2012, Vol. 21 ›› Issue (9): 98701-098701.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/21/9/098701
• INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY • 上一篇 下一篇
贺卓然a, 吴泰霖a, 欧阳颀a b, 涂豫海c
He Zhuo-Ran (贺卓然)a, Wu Tai-Lin (吴泰霖)a, Ouyang Qi (欧阳颀)a b, Tu Yu-Hai (涂豫海)c
摘要: Recent extensive studies of Escherichia coli (E. coli) chemotaxis have achieved a deep understanding of its microscopic control dynamics. As a result, various quantitatively predictive models have been developed to describe the chemotactic behavior of E. coli motion. However, a population-level partial differential equation (PDE) that rationally incorporates such microscopic dynamics is still insufficient. Apart from the traditional Keller-Segel (K-S) equation, many existing population-level models developed from the microscopic dynamics are integro-PDEs. The difficulty comes mainly from cell tumbles which yield a velocity jumping process. Here, we propose a Langevin approximation method that avoids such a difficulty without appreciable loss of precision. The resulting model not only quantitatively reproduces the results of pathway-based single-cell simulators, but also provides new inside information on the mechanism of E. coli chemotaxis. Our study demonstrates a possible alternative in establishing a simple population-level model that allows for the complex microscopic mechanisms in bacterial chemotaxis.
中图分类号: (Cell locomotion, chemotaxis)