Mapping out Min protein patterns in fully confined fluidic chambers
Abstract
The bacterial Min protein system provides a major model system for studying reaction-diffusion processes in biology. Here we present the first in vitro study of the Min system in fully confined three-dimensional chambers that are lithography-defined, lipid-bilayer coated and isolated through pressure valves. We identify three typical dynamical behaviors that occur dependent on the geometrical chamber parameters: pole-to-pole oscillations, spiral rotations, and traveling waves. We establish the geometrical selection rules and show that, surprisingly, Min-protein spiral rotations govern the larger part of the geometrical phase diagram. Confinement as well as an elevated temperature reduce the characteristic wavelength of the Min patterns, although even for confined chambers with a bacterial-level viscosity, the patterns retain a ~5 times larger wavelength than in vivo. Our results provide an essential experimental base for modeling of intracellular Min gradients in bacterial cell division as well as, more generally, for understanding pattern formation in reaction-diffusion systems.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (Frontiers of Nanoscience program)
- Yaron Caspi
- Cees Dekker
European Research Council (No. 669598)
- Yaron Caspi
- Cees Dekker
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- David Sprinzak, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Version history
- Received: June 30, 2016
- Accepted: November 24, 2016
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 25, 2016 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: January 5, 2017 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2016, Caspi & Dekker
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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