Microbial Communication : Mathematical Modeling, Synthetic Biology and the Role of Noise

This book introduces the concept of bacterial communication systems from a mathematical modeling point of view. It sheds light on the research undertaken in the last three decades, and the mathematical models that have been proposed to understand the underlying mechanism of such systems. These communication systems are related to quorum sensing mechanisms and quorum sensing regulated processes such as biofilm formation, gene expression, bioluminescence, swarming and virulence. The book further describes the phenomenon of noise, and discusses how noise plays a crucial role in gene expression and the quorum sensing circuit operationusing a set of tools like frequency domain analysis, power spectral density, stochastic simulation and the whitening effect. It also explores various aspects of synthetic biology (related to bacterial communication), such as genetic toggle switch, bistable gene regulatory networks, transcriptional repressor systems, pattern formation, synthetic cooperation, predator-prey synthetic systems, dynamical quorum sensing, synchronized quorum of genetic clocks, role of noise in synthetic biology, the Turing test and stochastic Turing test. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 1-8 Talking About Talking Microbes (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 9-24 MathematicalModels of Quorum Sensing Molecular Mechanisms (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 25-37 MathematicalModels of Quorum Sensing Regulated Biofilms Development (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 39-52 MathematicalModels of Bacterial Swarming Behaviour Regulated by Quorum Sensing (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 53-57 MathematicalModels of Bacterial Quorum Sensing Regulated Virulence Factors (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 59-71 Evolutionary Models of Bacterial Communication Systems (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 73-84 Pattern Formation in Bacterial Conversation Mechanisms (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 85-91 Summary of Experimental Results (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 93-110 Therapy Related Mathematical Models and Quorum Quenching (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 111-116 Role of Noise in Microbial Communication (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 117-125 Electrical Communication Systems in Bacterial Biofilms and Ion-Channels (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 127-135 Synthetic Biology and Microbial Communication (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 137-157 Role of Noise in Synthetic Biology (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 159-162 Noise in Science and Technology vs. Biological System (Sarangam Majumdar, Sisir Roy)....Pages 163-170 Back Matter ....Pages 171-175