| In the course of division, a cell has to correctly determine the position of cleavage. In the rod-like bacterium Escherichia coli, this task is in part accomplished by the proteins of the Min-system. These proteins show spatio-temporal oscillations such that division is inhibited at the cell poles. A possible mechanism leading to this pattern through a dynamic instability is presented. Here, the instability is caused by attractive interactions of membrane-bound molecules. The mechanism is discussed in terms of a deterministic description in one and three spatial dimensions as well as a one-dimensional stochastic description. The results of the theoretical analysis are compared to experimental observations. |
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