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Updated: Apr 25, 2026

Method for Efficient Refolding and Purification of Chemoreceptor Ligand Binding Domain
Published on: December 12, 2017
Chemical sensing by nonequilibrium cooperative receptors
Monica Skoge1, Sahin Naqvi2, Yigal Meir3
1Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0319, USA.
Abstract:
Cooperativity arising from local interactions in equilibrium receptor systems provides gain, but does not increase sensory performance, as measured by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to a fundamental tradeoff between gain and intrinsic noise. Here we allow sensing to be a nonequilibrium process and show that energy dissipation cannot circumvent the fundamental tradeoff, so that the SNR is still optimal for independent receptors. For systems requiring high gain, nonequilibrium 2D-coupled receptors maximize the SNR, revealing a new design principle for biological sensors.
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