Universal energy-accuracy tradeoffs in nonequilibrium cellular sensing

Abstract

We combine stochastic thermodynamics, large deviation theory, and information theory to derive fundamental limits on the accuracy with which single cell receptors can estimate external concentrations. As expected, if estimation is performed by an ideal observer of the entire trajectory of receptor states, then no energy consuming non-equilibrium receptor that can be divided into bound and unbound states can outperform an equilibrium two-state receptor. However, when estimation is performed by a simple observer that measures the fraction of time the receptor is bound, we derive a fundamental limit on the accuracy of general nonequilibrium receptors as a function of energy consumption. We further derive and exploit explicit formulas to numerically estimate a Pareto-optimal tradeoff between accuracy and energy. We find this tradeoff can be achieved by nonuniform ring receptors with a number of states that necessarily increases with energy. Our results yield a novel thermodynamic uncertainty relation for the time a physical system spends in a pool of states, and generalize the classic 1977 Berg-Purcell limit on cellular sensing along multiple dimensions.

For associated mp4 files, see https://github.com/ganguli-lab/Energy_Accuracy_Tradeoff_Cellular_Sensing

References in corpus (6)

• The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics
• Thermodynamic uncertainty relation for biomolecular processes
• The thermodynamics of prediction
• Estimating entropy production from waiting time distributions
• Thermodynamics of statistical inference by cells
• Precision of flow sensing by self-communicating cells

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• Nonequilibrium Fluctuation-Response Relations: From Identities to Bounds
• Optimal time estimation and the clock uncertainty relation for stochastic processes
• Affine relationships between steady currents
• Unified Linear Fluctuation-Response Theory Arbitrarily Far from Equilibrium
• Nonequilibrium fluctuation-response relations for state observables
• Nonequilibrium fluctuation-response relations for state-current correlations
• Theory for Optimal Estimation and Control under Resource Limitations and Its Applications to Biological Information Processing and Decision-Making
• Resource Limitations induce Phase Transitions in Biological Information Processing
• Nonlinear Response Relations and Fluctuation-Response Inequalities for Nonequilibrium Stochastic Systems
• Framework for fluctuating times and counting observables in stochastic excursions
• Counting observables in stochastic excursions