There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Most sensory cells use cross-membrane chemoreceptors to detect chemical signals in
the environment. The biochemical properties and spatial organization of chemoreceptors
play important roles in achieving and maintaining sensitivity and accuracy of chemical
sensing. Here we investigate the effects of receptor cooperativity and adaptation
on the limits of gradient sensing. We study a single cell with aggregated chemoreceptor
arrays on the cell surface and derive general formula to the limits for gradient sensing
from the uncertainty of instantaneous receptor activity. In comparison to independent
receptors, we find that cooperativity by non-adaptative receptors could significantly
lower the sensing limit in a chemical concentration range determined by the biochemical
properties of ligand-receptor binding and ligand-induced receptor activity. Cooperativity
by adaptative receptors are beneficial to gradient sensing within a broad range of
background concentrations. Our results also show that isotropic receptor aggregate
layout on the cell surface represents an optimal configuration to gradient sensing.