title: Dynamic Sampling and Information Encoding in Biochemical Networks.
abstract: Cells use biochemical networks to translate environmental information into intracellular responses. These responses can be highly dynamic, but how the information is encoded in these dynamics remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the dynamic encoding of information in the ATP-induced calcium responses of fibroblast cells, using a vectorial, or multi-time-point, measure from information theory. We find that the amount of extracted information depends on physiological constraints such as the sampling rate and memory capacity of the downstream network, and it is affected differentially by intrinsic versus extrinsic noise. By comparing to a minimal physical model, we find, surprisingly, that the information is often insensitive to the detailed structure of the underlying dynamics, and instead the decoding mechanism acts as a simple low-pass filter. These results demonstrate the mechanisms and limitations of dynamic information storage in cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon.
authors.forename: Garrett D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
authors.forename: Tommy A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Byrd
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mugler
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. Electronic address: sunb@onid.orst.edu.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D007257:Information Theory; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells
chemical_list: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D002118:Calcium