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Digital Library of the
European Council for Modelling and Simulation |
Title: |
Modeling And Simulation Of Caenorhabditis elegans Chemotaxis In
Response To A Dynamic Engineered Bacteria |
Authors: |
Divya A. Pandya, Christopher A. Blanar, Robert P. Smith,
Evan C. Haskell |
Published in: |
(2015).ECMS 2015 Proceedings edited
by: Valeri M. Mladenov, Grisha Spasov, Petia Georgieva, Galidiya Petrova, European
Council for Modeling and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2015 ISBN:
978-0-9932440-0-1 29th
European Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Albena
(Varna), Bulgaria, May 26th – 29th,
2015 |
Citation
format: |
Divya
A. Pandya, Christopher A. Blanar, Robert P. Smith, Evan C. Haskell (2015). Modeling And Simulation Of Caenorhabditis
elegans Chemotaxis In Response To A Dynamic Engineered Bacteria, ECMS 2015
Proceedings edited by: Valeri M. Mladenov, Petia Georgieva, Grisha Spasov,
Galidiya Petrova European Council for Modeling
and Simulation. doi:10.7148/2015-0100 |
DOI: |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7148/2015-0100 |
Abstract: |
Parasitic
helminthes remain important causative agents of human, plant and animal
diseases. Helminthes seek out food sources and navigate toward potential hosts
using olfaction of simple chemical cues in a process called chemoattraction.
While several studies have examined how nematodes, including Caenorhabditis elegans,
behave in response to a chemoattractant, how the characteristics of the
chemoattractant affect worm behavior has yet to explored. In this manuscript,
we develop a mathematical model to examine how characteristics of common
chemoattractants affect movement and behavior in the model nematode C.
elegans. Specifically, we model a scenario where a toxic,
engineered bacteria designed to express a chemoattractant influences
the behavior of a population of worms. Through the model we observe that,
under static conditions, the diffusion rate of the chemoattractant is
critical in influencing choice of C. elegans. Here, the higher diffusion
rate, the more the worms are attracted to the chemoattractant. We then show
that if the worms learn that the chemoattractant is associated with toxicity,
choice index is counterintuitively more strongly reduced with increasing
diffusion rate. Finally, our model predicts a tradeoff between pulse period
and attractant strength when the chemoattractant is dynamically pulsed in the
environment. Our results reveal unique tradeoffs that govern chemoattraction
in worms and may have implications in designing novel strategies for
preventing or treating infections with parasitic worms. |
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