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Figure 7 | BMC Biophysics

Figure 7

From: Physical constraints on the establishment of intracellular spatial gradients in bacteria

Figure 7

Spherical cells can support gradients along the source/sink axis. A) Schematic of a spherical cell of radius r s with oppositely localized kinase and phosphatase spread over a spherical cap. B) 3D mathematical modeling of the distribution of [R ∼ P] in a spherical cell with radius r s  = 0.4 μm. C) [R ∼ P] line scan through the cell middle showing average volume-weighted density along the cell length (along the dashed line in A) for different radii r s . D) Schematic of 1D distributions of kinase and phosphatase activities that produce profiles mimicking those in (C) for r s > 0.5 μm, with background kinase and phosphatase activities localized from the middle of the cell to the phosphatase pole and kinase pole, respectively, and overlapping by L/20.

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