Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 9: Focus: Systems Biology of Bacteria (with jDPG)

BP 9.3: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 10:30–11:00, E 020

Optimal control strategies in living cells — •Markus Kollmann — Department Biologie, Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

Unicellular organisms have evolved an astonishing repertoire to survive in fluctuating environments. To ensure high reproductive success, microorganisms adapt sufficiently fast to new living conditions, such as nutrient availability, osmolarity, and ambient temperature. Such phenotypic adaptation is coordinated by the activity of cellular circuits, whose components are regulated on the level of DNA, RNA, and protein. The question arises whether the observed regulatory strategies of microorganisms can be explained by an optimal tradeoff between precision, timing and resource efficiency of cellular response. Strong evidence for such optimized cellular control can be found within bacteria and the evolved control strategies show striking similarities to predictions from optimal control theory. We give several examples for highly optimized bacterial circuits, their proposed objective functions, and their molecular realizations.