Thermodynamic limits on general far-from-equilibrium molecular templating networks
Biological Physics
2025-06-10 v2 Statistical Mechanics
Information Theory
math.IT
Molecular Networks
Abstract
Cells produce RNA and proteins via molecular templating networks. We show that information transmission in such networks is bounded by functions of a simple thermodynamic property of the network, regardless of complexity. Surprisingly, putative systems operating at this bound do not have a high flux around the network. Instead, they have low entropy production, with each product in a ``pseudo-equilibrium'' determined by a single pathway. These pseudo-equilibrium limits constrain information transmission for the overall network, even if individual templates are arbitrarily specific.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2404.02791,
title = {Thermodynamic limits on general far-from-equilibrium molecular templating networks},
author = {Benjamin Qureshi and Jenny M. Poulton and Thomas E. Ouldridge},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.02791},
year = {2025}
}