Related papers: Physical limits to biochemical signaling

In contexts ranging from embryonic development to bacterial ecology, cell populations migrate chemotactically along self-generated chemical gradients, often forming a propagating front. Here, we theoretically show that the stability of such…

The expressive capacity of quantum systems for machine learning is limited by quantum sampling noise incurred during measurement. Although it is generally believed that noise limits the resolvable capacity of quantum systems, the precise…

Mounting evidence shows that oscillatory activity is widespread in cell signaling. Here we review some of this recent evidence, focusing on both the molecular mechanisms that potentially underlie such dynamical behavior, and the potential…

Biological information processing is generally assumed to be classical. Measured cellular energy budgets of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, however, fall orders of magnitude short of the power required to maintain classical states of…

Cells are often considered input-output devices that maximize the transmission of information by converting extracellular stimuli (input) via signaling pathways (communication channel) to cell behavior (output). However, in biological…

The phenomena of stochasticity in biochemical processes have been intriguing life scientists for the past few decades. We now know that living cells take advantage of stochasticity in some cases and counteract stochastic effects in others.…

We propose a model for bacterial Quorum Sensing based on an auxiliary electrostatic-like interac-tion originating from a fictitious electrical charge that represents bacteria activity. A cooperative mechanism for charge/activity exchange is…

To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of chemical reactions between molecules. Here, we describe how…

Chemotaxis enables marine bacteria to increase encounters with phytoplankton cells by reducing their search times, provided that bacteria detect noisy chemical gradients around phytoplankton. Gradient detection depends on bacterial…

Electrochemical communication is a mechanism that enables intercellular interaction among bacteria within communities. Bacteria achieves synchronization and coordinates collective actions at the population level through the utilization of…

We study a generic model for the polarisation and motility of self-propelled soft objects, biological cells or biomimetic systems, interacting with a viscous substrate. The active forces generated by the cell on the substrate are modelled…

Bursting cells lead to ambient RNA that contaminates sequencing data. This process is especially problematic in perturbation experiments where transcription factors are implanted into cells to determine their effects. The presence of…

Gene expression and its regulation is a nonequilibrium stochastic process. Different molecules are involved in several biochemical steps in this process with low copies. It is observed that the stochasticity in biochemical processes is…

Bacteria meticulously regulate their intracellular ion concentrations and create ionic concentration gradients across the bacterial membrane. These ionic concentration gradients provide free energy for many cellular processes and are…

Computation of biological processes creates great promise for everyday life and great challenges for physical scientists. Simulations of molecular dynamics appeal to biologists as a natural extension of structural biology. Once biologists…

The deep connection between thermodynamics, computation, and information is now well established both theoretically and experimentally. Here, we extend these ideas to show that thermodynamics also places fundamental constraints on…

Unlike isolated beta-cells, which usually produce continuous spikes or fast and irregular bursts, electrically coupled beta-cells are apt to exhibit robust bursting action potentials. We consider the noise induced by thermal fluctuations as…

Bacteria are often exposed to multiple stimuli in complex environments, and their efficient chemotactic decisions are critical to survive and grow in their native environments. Bacterial responses to the environmental stimuli depend on the…

We consider approaches for controlling the buildup of noise by design of gates for chemical and biomolecular computing, in order to realize stable, scalable networks for multi-step information processing. Solvable rate-equation models are…

Living cells deploy many resources to sense their environments, including receptors, downstream signaling molecules, time and fuel. However, it is not known which resources fundamentally limit the precision of sensing, like weak links in a…