Fig 5. Fraction of Lsr-autoinduced cells decreases as the standard deviation of the parameters K_synth or V_ydgG increases.

Results were derived from finite difference agent based simulations of Lsr activity in bacteria swimming in an unbiased manner. The influence of standard deviation of the natural logarithm, σ, of the log-normal distributions for different parameters on the fraction of the population that was Lsr-induced is represented. Standard deviation values ranging from 0.005 to 0.025 for the parameters (A) K_synth representing the rate of AI-2 production and (B) V_ydgG representing the rate of AI-2 export, each run in triplicate. Standard deviation of the natural logarithm for the log-normal distribution was used because the coefficient of variance is solely dependent on this measure. Dark lines represent the average values, and lighter surrounding area represents the standard deviation.