Limits to the precision of gradient sensing with spatial communication and temporal integration
Abstract
Knowing which way to move is crucial for many biological processes, from organismal development to migration of cancer cells and from motion of microbes to wound healing. To find their preferred directions, biological systems compare concentrations of a chemical cue at their different edges. The comparison requires information from these different locations to be communicated to the same place. However, all communication is noisy (just think of the childhood game "telephone"). This communication noise, as well as noise in the individual measurements themselves, sets the accuracy of the direction sensing. Here we quantify the importance of the communication noise and propose a mechanism that can improve the accuracy of direction sensing.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- February 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1509597112
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1505.04346
- Bibcode:
- 2016PNAS..113E.689M
- Keywords:
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- Quantitative Biology - Molecular Networks;
- Physics - Biological Physics;
- Quantitative Biology - Cell Behavior
- E-Print:
- 14 pages, 4 figures