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Cell
Volume 145, Issue 2, 15 April 2011, Pages 312-321

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Article

Thermal Robustness of Signaling in Bacterial Chemotaxis

Olga Oleksiuk1, 6, Vladimir Jakovljevic1, 6, Nikita Vladimirov1, Ricardo Carvalho1, Eli Paster2, William S. Ryu2, 7, Yigal Meir4, Ned S. Wingreen2, 3, Markus Kollmann5, Victor Sourjik1, Corresponding Author Contact Information, E-mail The Corresponding Author

1 Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie der Universität Heidelberg, DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
2 Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
3 Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
4 Department of Physics, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel
5 Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Department of Biology, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

Received 21 March 2010; revised 18 October 2010; Accepted 8 March 2011. Published: April 14, 2011. Available online 14 April 2011.

Summary

Temperature is a global factor that affects the performance of all intracellular networks. Robustness against temperature variations is thus expected to be an essential network property, particularly in organisms without inherent temperature control. Here, we combine experimental analyses with computational modeling to investigate thermal robustness of signaling in chemotaxis of Escherichia coli, a relatively simple and well-established model for systems biology. We show that steady-state and kinetic pathway parameters that are essential for chemotactic performance are indeed temperature-compensated in the entire physiological range. Thermal robustness of steady-state pathway output is ensured at several levels by mutual compensation of temperature effects on activities of individual pathway components. Moreover, the effect of temperature on adaptation kinetics is counterbalanced by preprogrammed temperature dependence of enzyme synthesis and stability to achieve nearly optimal performance at the growth temperature. Similar compensatory mechanisms are expected to ensure thermal robustness in other systems.

Corresponding Author Contact InformationCorresponding author

6These authors equally contributed to this work

7Present address: Department of Physics, Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A7, Canada

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Cell
Volume 145, Issue 2, 15 April 2011, Pages 312-321