Transport rate constant of AHL (acyl homo-serine lactone)

Value 0.05 1/sec
Organism Bacteria Vibrio fischeri
Reference Pai A, You L: Optimal tuning of bacterial sensing potential. Molecular systems biology 2009, 5(286) :286 doi: 10.1038/msb.2009.43. Supplementary Text 2 p.24 2nd paragraphPubMed ID19584835
Primary Source Kaplan HB, Greenberg EP (1985) Diffusion of autoinducer is involved in regulation of the Vibrio fischeri luminescence system. Journal of bacteriology 163: 1210-1214.PubMed ID3897188
Comments Supplementary Text 2 p.24 2nd paragraph:"Transport of signal molecules-Consider a cell with no signal molecules exposed to a medium with a large signal concentration c0. If, the signal diffuses across the cell membrane by free diffusion with a transport rate constant of D, the rate of accumulation of intracellular signal concentration (ci) can be described as [dci/dct]=D(c0-ci). If the signal concentration in the medium is sufficiently large, the time (te) for ci to reach equilibrium value c0, is ~1/D. From similar measurements of freely diffusing AHLs by Kaplan et al (primary source), D=1/20 s^-1 = 180 hr^-1 (Ignoring signal degradation for such short observation periods) as the upper limit for free diffusion signal transport."
Entered by Uri M
ID 112003