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Kalman-like Self-Tuned Sensitivity in Biophysical Sensing.
Kabir Husain1, Weerapat Pittayakanchit1, Gopal Pattanayak2
1Department of Physics and James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Cell Systems
|September 30, 2019
Summary
Living cells dynamically adjust their sensitivity to environmental changes. This adaptive sensitivity helps organisms respond effectively to crucial signals while ignoring noise, improving survival.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Systems Biology
- Cellular Biology
Background:
- Organisms must balance environmental sensitivity with noise filtering.
- Dynamic tuning of sensitivity is a proposed mechanism for this balance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how cells dynamically tune environmental sensitivity.
- To analyze the role of clock-metabolism coupling in environmental adaptation.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of the circadian clock in Synechococcus elongatus.
- Examination of osmotic-stress-response pathways in yeast.
- Comparison to Kalman filter models with adaptive gain.
Main Results:
- Clock-metabolism coupling detects mismatches between predictions and light cycles.
- Cells temporarily increase light sensitivity for faster re-entrainment.
- Similar adaptive sensitivity observed in yeast osmotic stress response.
Conclusions:
- Cells dynamically tune sensitivity to environmental stimuli.
- This adaptive mechanism enhances response to critical environmental changes.
- Suggests history-dependent biophysical sensing mechanisms.
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