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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 93 » Issue 22
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 228103 (2004) [4 pages]

Pattern Formation within Escherichia coli: Diffusion, Membrane Attachment, and Self-Interaction of MinD Molecules

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Rahul V. Kulkarni1,*, Kerwyn Casey Huang1,2,†, Morten Kloster1, and Ned S. Wingreen1,3
1NEC Laboratories America, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA
2Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
3Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA

Received 6 January 2004; published 23 November 2004

In E. coli, accurate cell division depends upon the oscillation of Min proteins from pole to pole. We provide a model for the polar localization of MinD based only on diffusion, a delay for nucleotide exchange, and different rates of attachment to the bare membrane and the occupied membrane. We derive analytically the probability density, and correspondingly the length scale, for MinD attachment zones. Our simple analytical model illustrates the processes giving rise to the observed localization of cellular MinD zones.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.228103
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.228103
PACS:
87.17.Ee, 82.39.Rt, 87.16.Ac

*Present address: Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061. Electronic address: kulkarni@vt.edu.

†Present address: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540.

 
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