Energy, Information, and Power in Cells
Abstract
Cells appear to obey 10 universal principles needed for ultra-energy-efficientinformation processing. Examples include sparse coding balanced excitation and inhibition; and energy-associated costs to achieve speed and informational precision goals.There are at least 13 deep similarities between the relatively slow and ultra-energy- efficient intra-cellular information processing in cells and the relatively fast extra-cellular information processing in neurons. These correspondences motivate us to search for universal principles of ultra-energy-efficient information processing in prokaryotes across multiple scales in space and time. For example, microbes have feed-forward genetic loops (FFL’s) that implement sparse coding and achieve robustness and efficiency in a manner highly analogous to feed-forward inhibition motifs used by neurons. Prokaryotes appear to have provided the evolutionary origin for many energy-efficient strategies in eukaryotic cells including neurons. Prokaryotic DNA-RNA-protein-metabolite networks rival the complexity of large insect brains in the number of nodes, feedback loops, and connectivity.Therefore, we outline multiple genome-scale experiments that measure the entire gamut of energy (ATP) utilization in the prokaryote E. coli and how this relates to information (via speed and signal-to-noise ratio), and power (ATP consumption rate). Our work should create the first comprehensive atlas (‘The ATP ome’) of energy-information- power relationships in a cell at the genome scale along with associated identification of new universal scale-invariant principles that impact general low-power bio-inspired systems. We can also apply this understanding to applications in metabolic engineering of high value chemicals and wide-dynamic-range electro-molecular sensing directly impacting yields, titer, rate, detection sensitivity, and metabolic burden.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 28, 2018
- Source ID
- FA95501810467
Entities
People
- Rahul Sarpeshkar
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College
- United States Air Force