title: Chemical sensing by nonequilibrium cooperative receptors.
abstract: Cooperativity arising from local interactions in equilibrium receptor systems provides gain, but does not increase sensory performance, as measured by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to a fundamental tradeoff between gain and intrinsic noise. Here we allow sensing to be a nonequilibrium process and show that energy dissipation cannot circumvent the fundamental tradeoff, so that the SNR is still optimal for independent receptors. For systems requiring high gain, nonequilibrium 2D-coupled receptors maximize the SNR, revealing a new design principle for biological sensors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0319, USA.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skoge
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Sahin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naqvi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Ben-Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel.
authors.forename: Yigal
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Ned S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Wingreen
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002633:Chemotaxis; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry; D007700:Kinetics; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D000072236:Methyl-Accepting Chemotaxis Proteins; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface / Q000737:chemistry*; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D000072236:Methyl-Accepting Chemotaxis Proteins; D011956:Receptors, Cell Surface