Monday, November 5, 2007 - 3:50 PM
132b

Robust Design Of Carbon Catabolite Repression

Z. Nevin Gerek1, Berna Sariyar-Akbulut2, and S. Banu Ozkan1. (1) Center for Biological Physics, Arizona State University, PO Box 871504, Tempe, AZ 85287, (2) Chemical Engineering, Marmara University, Department of Engineering Building D Goztepe Campus 34722, İstanbul, Turkey

Carbon catabolite repression (CCR) in bacteria takes up one carbon source preferentially from a mixture in the growth medium and utilizes carbohydrate uptake according to the metabolic capacities of the cell.

Although fundamental biochemical principles of the carbon catabolite repression network have been understood, a quantitative description of this growth behavior is still lacking. We study the network regulating the cell-cycle of carbon catabolite repression in bacteria using a simple dynamical model to investigate its global property and stability. It is shown that the cell-cycle regulatory network is extremely stable and robust for its function. We also analyze the preferential utilization for different sugar sources.