Nearly maximal information gain due to time integration in central dogma reactions
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Living cells process information about their environment through the central dogma processes of transcription and translation, which drive the cellular response to stimuli. Here, we study the transfer of information from environmental input to the transcript and protein expression levels. Evaluation of both experimental and analogous simulation data reveals that transcription and translation are not two simple information channels connected in series. Instead, we demonstrate that the central dogma reactions often create a time-integrating information channel, where the translation channel receives and integrates multiple outputs from the transcription channel. This information channel model of the central dogma provides new information-theoretic selection criteria for the central dogma rate constants. Using the data for four well-studied species we show that their central dogma rate constants achieve information gain because of time integration while also keeping the loss because of stochasticity in translation relatively low ( < 0.5 bits).
Source: iScience
Authors: Swarnavo Sarkar, Jayan Rammohan
Institution: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,150
OpenAlex ID: W4367295967