TY - JOUR TI - Modeling bacterial quorum sensing in open and closed environments: potential discrepancies between agar plate and culture flask experiments AU - Bihary, Dóra AU - Tóth, Marietta AU - Kerényi, Ádám AU - Venturi, Vittorio AU - Pongor, Sándor T2 - Journal of Molecular Modeling AB - Quorum sensing (QS) is a process of bacterial communication and cooperation mediated by the release of jointly exploited signals and "public goods" into the environment. There are conflicting reports on the behavior of mutants deficient in the release of these materials. Namely, mutants that appear perfectly viable and capable of outgrowing wild type cells in a closed model system such as a culture flask, may not be viable or invasive on open surfaces such as agar plates. Here we show via agent-based computational simulations that this apparent discrepancy is due to the difference between open and closed systems. We suggest that the experimental difference is due to the fact that wild type cells can easily saturate a well-mixed culture flask with signals and public goods so QS will be not necessary after a certain time point. As a consequence, QS-deficient mutants can continue to grow even after the wild type population has vanished. This phenomenon is not likely to occur in open environments including open surfaces and agar plate models. In other words, even if QS is required for survival, QS deficient mutants may grow faster initially in short term laboratory experiments or computer simulations, while only WT cells appear stable over longer time scales, especially when adaptation to changing environments is important. DA - 2014/07// PY - 2014 DO - 10.1007/s00894-014-2248-y DP - PubMed VL - 20 IS - 7 SP - 2248 J2 - J Mol Model LA - eng SN - 0948-5023 ST - Modeling bacterial quorum sensing in open and closed environments UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944091 KW - Agar KW - Bacterial Proteins KW - Bacteriological Techniques KW - Computer Simulation KW - Genotype KW - Microbial Viability KW - Models, Biological KW - Mutation KW - Phenotype KW - Pseudomonas aeruginosa KW - Quorum Sensing KW - Repressor Proteins KW - Time Factors KW - Trans-Activators ER -