Summary: IOP PUBLISHING PHYSICAL BIOLOGY
Phys. Biol. 4 (2007) 229­245 doi:10.1088/1478-3975/4/4/001
Cost­benefit theory and optimal design of
gene regulation functions
Tomer Kalisky, Erez Dekel and Uri Alon
Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann
Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Received 31 May 2007
Accepted for publication 31 August 2007
Published 6 November 2007
Online at stacks.iop.org/PhysBio/4/229
Abstract
Cells respond to the environment by regulating the expression of genes according to
environmental signals. The relation between the input signal level and the expression of the
gene is called the gene regulation function. It is of interest to understand the shape of a gene
regulation function in terms of the environment in which it has evolved and the basic
constraints of biological systems. Here we address this by presenting a cost­benefit theory for
gene regulation functions that takes into account temporally varying inputs in the environment
and stochastic noise in the biological components. We apply this theory to the well-studied lac
operon of E. coli. The present theory explains the shape of this regulation function in terms of

Source: Alon, Uri - Departments of Molecular Cell Biology & Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science

Collections: Biology and Medicine