Low Probability of Initiating nirS Transcription Explains Observed Gas Kinetics and Growth of Bacteria Switching from Aerobic Respiration to Denitrification
Figure 5
Modelling of (h−1) as a function of
.
A. The panel shows the O2 concentration in the liquid-phase falling as a result of aerobic respiration. B. The panel shows the probability for a cell to switch to denitrification (
, h−1) modelled as a function of
.
(Panels A & B) is the concentration below which
is assumed to trigger (due to withdrawal of the transcriptional control of O2 on denitrification [22]), whereas
is assumed to be the concentration below which
terminates (due to lack of energy for enzyme synthesis). The double-headed arrow (at the bottom of Panel A) illustrates the limited time-window (
) available for the cells to switch to denitrification.