Cell development obeys maximum Fisher information

Front Biosci (Elite Ed). 2013 Jun 1;5(3):1017-32. doi: 10.2741/e681.

Abstract

Eukaryotic cell development has been optimized by natural selection to obey maximal intracellular flux of messenger proteins. This, in turn, implies maximum Fisher information on angular position about a target nuclear pore complex (NPR). The cell is simply modeled as spherical, with cell membrane (CM) diameter 10 micrometer and concentric nuclear membrane (NM) diameter 6 micrometer. The NM contains approximately 3000 nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Development requires messenger ligands to travel from the CM-NPC-DNA target binding sites. Ligands acquire negative charge by phosphorylation, passing through the cytoplasm over Newtonian trajectories toward positively charged NPCs (utilizing positive nuclear localization sequences). The CM-NPC channel obeys maximized mean protein flux F and Fisher information I at the NPC. Therefore the first-order change in I = 0. But also, the 2nd-order change in I is likewise close to zero, indicating significant stability to environmental perturbations. Many predictions are confirmed, including the dominance of protein pathways of from 1-4 proteins, a 4 nm size for the EGFR protein and the flux value F approximately 10(16) proteins/m2-s. After entering the nucleus, each protein ultimately delivers its ligand information to a DNA target site with maximum probability, i.e. maximum Kullback-Liebler entropy H(KL). In a smoothness limit H(KL) --> I(DNA)/2, so that the total CM-NPC-DNA channel obeys maximum Fisher I. It is also shown that such maximum information --> a cell state far from thermodynamic equilibrium, one condition for life.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cell Biology*
  • DNA / metabolism
  • Membrane Proteins / metabolism
  • Thermodynamics

Substances

  • Membrane Proteins
  • DNA