1–26 Jul 2019
Nordita, Stockholm
Europe/Stockholm timezone

Does evolution care about bits?

24 Jul 2019, 14:00
30m
FB52 (Nordita, Stockholm)

FB52

Nordita, Stockholm

Speaker

Manuel Razo Mejia

Description

Given the stochastic nature of gene expression, genetically identical cells exposed to the same environmental inputs will produce different outputs. This heterogeneity has consequences for how cells are able to survive in changing environments. Recent work has explored the use of information theory as a framework to understand the accuracy with which cells can ascertain the state of their surroundings. Yet the predictive power of these approaches is limited and has not been rigorously tested using precision measurements. To that end, we generate a minimal model for a simple genetic circuit in which all parameter values for the model come from independently published data sets. We then predict the information processing capacity of the genetic circuit for a suite of biophysical parameters such as protein copy number and protein-DNA affinity. We compare these parameter- free predictions with an experimental determination of the information processing capacity of E. coli cells, and find that our minimal model accurately captures the experimental data. These theoretical results will allow us to tackle the question of the abstract quantity of information bits can serve as a quantitative trait on which selection can act.

Primary author

Manuel Razo Mejia

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