Spatiotemporal Modelling of Intracellular Signalling in Bacterial Chemotaxis

Whilst theoretical models have been used to understand aspects of bacterial chemotaxis systems for the past thirty or so years, little work has focused on the importance that spatial localisation of proteins within the cytoplasm of the cell has on the overall functionality of the intracellular network. In this talk we will examine spatio-temporal models of signal transduction developed to describe the phosphotransfer pathway within E. coli. This model framework will then be extended to examine the importance of protein localisation within R. sphaeroides, a species which contains considerably more phosphotransfer proteins than E. coli and the spatial localisation of which plays a particularly important role in activating certain elements of the phosphotransfer network. The difficulties encountered in obtaining robust parameter estimates for reaction rates within the R. sphaeroides will also be detailed. Joint work with S. L. Porter, P. K. Maini and J. P. Armitage.