Parameter	Value
$k_2^{\pm }$		on/off rate constants for dimer formation
$k_3^{\pm }$, $k_4^{\pm }$		on/off rate constant for ligand binding
K2	$k_2^{-}/k_2^{+}$	dimer dissociation constant
K3,K4	$k_3^{-}/k_3^{+}$, $k_4^{-}/k_4^{+}$	ligand-dimer dissociation constants
K	$\sqrt{K_3{K}_4}$	dissociation constant for cooperative ligand binding
b1	∼1000h−1	production rate of R [26]
bs		background S production
ks	∼100 bs	maximal S production rate
κs	bs < κs < ks	S production
λ1	∼20h−1	R monomer degradation, [3]
λ2, λ3, λ4	<1 h−1	dimer degradation (including growth) [12,21]
λd		averaged dimer degradation rate
Rt	[PR], [PS]	intracellular promoter density
r1, r2, r3, r4	[R], [R2], [R2S], [R2S2]	regulator monomer and dimer concentrations
r		total regulator concentration
ra	r4, [R2S2]	activated regulator concentration
rm	$\gg \frac{b_s}{k_s}{K}_s$	maximal ra
s	[S]	signal molecule concentration
t		time
PR		promoter for R synthesis
R		regulator protein
PS		promoter for S synthetase
S		signal molecule/ligand
K	10 nM−10 μm	R2S2 dissociation constant [13–15,32]
Ks		R2S2-PS dissociation constant
D	∼2 mm2/h	diffusion constant for S (AHLs)
ρv	<1	bacterial density (v/v)
Σ	ρv 2	colony “size” measure
	10−70 μm	radius of colony [5,29]