Universal energy-accuracy tradeoffs in nonequilibrium cellular sensing.

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Statistical Mechanics
• Information Theory

Background:

• Single cell receptors are crucial for sensing external concentrations.
• Previous models, like the Berg-Purcell limit, established sensing benchmarks.
• Understanding thermodynamic constraints on cellular sensing is vital.

Purpose of the Study:

• To derive fundamental limits on the accuracy of single cell receptor concentration estimation.
• To investigate the role of energy consumption in receptor accuracy for simple observers.
• To establish a Pareto-optimal tradeoff between sensing accuracy and energy expenditure.

Main Methods:

• Combining stochastic thermodynamics, large deviation theory, and information theory.
• Analyzing receptor state trajectories and bound fraction measurements.
• Deriving explicit formulas for accuracy-energy tradeoffs.

Main Results:

• No equilibrium receptor outperforms a two-state equilibrium receptor for ideal observers.
• A fundamental limit on accuracy for non-equilibrium receptors is derived as a function of energy consumption.
• A Pareto-optimal tradeoff between accuracy and energy is achievable by specific receptor designs, like nonuniform rings.

Conclusions:

• Non-equilibrium cellular sensing is constrained by energy consumption.
• The study generalizes the Berg-Purcell limit to multiple dimensions.
• This work provides a thermodynamic uncertainty relation for physical system state durations.