How receptor diffusion influences gradient sensing

Chemotaxis, or directed motion in chemical gradients, is critical for various biological processes. Many eukaryotic cells perform spatial sensing, i.e. they detect gradients by comparing spatial differences in binding occupancy of chemosensory receptors across their membrane. In many theoretical mod...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Royal Society interface Vol. 12; no. 102; p. 20141097
Main Authors Nguyen, H., Dayan, P., Goodhill, G. J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England The Royal Society 06.01.2015
Subjects
Algorithms
Breast - metabolism
Chemotaxis
Chemotaxis - physiology
Computer Simulation
Diffusion
Epithelial Cells - cytology
Female
Fisher Information
Humans
Likelihood Functions
Lipid Bilayers - chemistry
Lipids - chemistry
Membrane Microdomains - chemistry
Models, Theoretical
Poisson Distribution
Receptor Diffusion
Reproducibility of Results
Signal Transduction
Spatial Sensing
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Summary:Chemotaxis, or directed motion in chemical gradients, is critical for various biological processes. Many eukaryotic cells perform spatial sensing, i.e. they detect gradients by comparing spatial differences in binding occupancy of chemosensory receptors across their membrane. In many theoretical models of spatial sensing, it is assumed, for the sake of simplicity, that the receptors concerned do not move. However, in reality, receptors undergo diverse modes of diffusion, and can traverse considerable distances in the time it takes such cells to turn in an external gradient. This sets a physical limit on the accuracy of spatial sensing, which we explore using a model in which receptors diffuse freely over the membrane. We find that the Fisher information carried in binding and unbinding events decreases monotonically with the diffusion constant of the receptors.
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ISSN:1742-5689
1742-5662
DOI:10.1098/rsif.2014.1097