 |
Center for Nonlinear Studies |
In many circumstances, cells monitor small temporal or spatial changes in environmental signals that trigger specific cell responses. Such sensory behavior is commonly found, for examples, in attractants/repellents tracking in chemotaxis, odor sensing in olfaction and light detection in photoreception. If the cell is viewed as a device that measures the input signal, a fundamental task is to determine the precision and accuracy of such a device and to understand how the environmental and instrumentational uncertainties (noises) limit the device’s performance. Here, using the example of sensory receptors in chemotactic bacteria, we explore the scenarios that a single chemoreceptor (and a receptor array) may work as one type of several possible estimators of chemical concentrations. We also speculate the computing rules of the ligand-induced signal transduction circuits that the cell uses to internalize a signal and manage its uncertainty.
Host: William Hlavacek