Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 2: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems (joint session DY/ BP/CPP)

DY 2.4: Talk

Monday, March 16, 2015, 10:30–10:45, BH-N 243

Efficiency of cellular information processing — •David Hartich, Andre C. Barato, and Udo Seifert — II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Stuttgart, Germany

We study theoretical models inspired by the E. coli sensory network, using the framework of stochastic thermodynamics for bipartite systems [1]. More precisely, we model the sensory system by an internal process measuring an external process, which is a ligand concentration jumping at random between two values. We show that the rate of conditional Shannon entropy reduction, characterizing the learning of the internal process about the external process, is bound by the thermodynamic entropy production [2]. This approach allows for the definition of an informational efficiency that can be used to study cellular information processing. We start with a simple model for which ATP must be consumed so that a protein inside the cell can learn about the external environment. A further discussion illustrates, inter alia, that a non-zero learning rate without dissipation inside the cell can only be obtained if the external process compensates for it.

[1] DH, ACB and US, J. Stat. Mech., P02016 (2014)

[2] ACB, DH and US, New J. Phys. 16, 103024 (2014)