Mathematical models of bacterial quorum sensing

Bacterial quorum sensing (QS) is a mechanism used by bacteria to coordinate gene expression. Among QS-regulated processes are motility, biofilm formation and virulence. In this talk, I present some ways to model quorum sensing mathematically. The examples vary through bacterial strains and modeling approaches. As QS is basically a cooperation system, it is subjected to exploitation by members of the population which do not contribute. Although non-cooperators, in theory, can potentially invade the cooperative strain population, this is not observed in nature. We briefly discuss on how to approach the issue of the evolutionary stability of QS from a mathematical viewpoint.