Mathematical Insights into the Role of Feedback in Quorum-Sensing Architectures

Abstract

We present a review of the mathematical literature concerned with the role of feedback in bacterial quorum-sensing. We identify four principal roles: defining the shape of the system response, tuning of signal or regulator levels, filtering noise out from the system and timing of the onset of the quorum-sensing response. We conclude with simplified models of three different quorum-sensing architectures (agr, luxIR and that of Vibrio harveyi and V. cholerae), using numerical and analytical investigations of the resulting ordinary differential equations to characterise their feedback loops in terms of the roles defined above.