2015/10/31 by Gerardo Aquino, Ned S. Wingreen, Robert G. Endres · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #physics.bio-ph #q-bio.MN #q-bio.SC
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10955-015-1412-9
25 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2015/10/31 · arxiv updated 2016/01/20
How cells reliably infer information about their environment is a fundamentally important question. While sensing and signaling generally start with cell-surface receptors, the degree of accuracy with which a cell can measure external ligand concentration with even the simplest device - a single receptor - is surprisingly hard to pin down. Recent studies provide conflicting results for the fundamental physical limits. Comparison is made difficult as different studies either suggest different readout mechanisms of the ligand-receptor occupancy, or differ on how ligand diffusion is implemented. Here we critically analyse these studies and present a unifying perspective on the limits of sensing, with wide-ranging biological implications.