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Discrete and Continuum Multiscale Behaviour in Bacterial Communication

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Multiscale Computer Modeling in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering

Part of the book series: Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials ((SMTEB,volume 14))

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Abstract

The interacting effects operating on subcellular (gene regulatory processes), cellular (interactions between neighbouring cells) and population (signalling molecule transport) scales are exemplified and explored through simple multiscale models. Specific attention is focused on how the upregulation (or downregulation) of small numbers of discrete cells can influence the behaviour of the population as a whole, by investigating toy models for positive autoregulation and by the simulation of a much more detailed model for quorum sensing within a Gram-positive population of bacteria. The implications for delays associated with gene expression are also investigated in a spatio-temporal context through the analysis of blow-up behaviour, as a mathematical symptom of upregulation through positive feedback, in some model reaction-diffusion delay equations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We for the most part adopt dimensionless forms containing the minimal numbers of parameters in this section and the next.

  2. 2.

    Throughout we associate such blow up with upregulation (e.g. quorum sensing).

  3. 3.

    Note that we are thus concerned in this section with the interactions between two stable states, whereas the focus in the previous sections was on how the solution is driven away from an unstable state (namely the trivial one).

  4. 4.

    The quorum-sensing phenomena described above allow bacterial populations to function in some regards as multicellular organisms, and the types of qualitative phenomena that we have sought to classify are of course also relevant to plants, fungi and animals.

  5. 5.

    Discreteness means that it is only meaningful for an entire cell or compartment, rather than an infinitesimally small part of one, to become upregulated, an effect that cannot of course be captured by continuum models.

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Acknowledgments

SJ thanks the MRC for funding in the form of a Special Training in Biomedical Informatics Fellowship and both authors the BBSRC for support under the SysMO and SysMO2 initiatives (COSMIC and COSMIC 2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, England

    Sara Jabbari

  2. Centre for Mathematical Medicine and Biology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK

    John R. King

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  1. Sara Jabbari
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Correspondence to John R. King .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tel Aviv University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Amit Gefen

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Jabbari, S., King, J.R. (2013). Discrete and Continuum Multiscale Behaviour in Bacterial Communication. In: Gefen, A. (eds) Multiscale Computer Modeling in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. Studies in Mechanobiology, Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/8415_2012_155

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/8415_2012_155

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