%0 Journal Article
%T Information processing and signal integration in bacterial quorum sensing
%A Pankaj Mehta
%A Sidhartha Goyal
%A Tao Long
%A Bonnie Bassler
%A Ned S. Wingreen
%J Quantitative Biology
%D 2009
%I arXiv
%X Bacteria communicate using secreted chemical signaling molecules called autoinducers in a process known as quorum sensing. The quorum-sensing network of the marine bacterium {\it Vibrio harveyi} employs three autoinducers, each known to encode distinct ecological information. Yet how cells integrate and interpret the information contained within the three autoinducer signals remains a mystery. Here, we develop a new framework for analyzing signal integration based on Information Theory and use it to analyze quorum sensing in {\it V. harveyi}. We quantify how much the cells can learn about individual autoinducers and explain the experimentally observed input-output relation of the {\it V. harveyi} quorum-sensing circuit. Our results suggest that the need to limit interference between input signals places strong constraints on the architecture of bacterial signal-integration networks, and that bacteria likely have evolved active strategies for minimizing this interference. Here we analyze two such strategies: manipulation of autoinducer production and feedback on receptor number ratios.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/0905.4092v1