Multidimensional biochemical information processing of dynamical patterns

Biological cells can send signals to each other by emitting signalling molecules. Cells can receive the signals by measuring the concentration of the signalling molecules using surface receptors. If the concentration does not change in time then this is just a single number, which does not transmit much information. Compare this with sending electrical signals down wires; if the voltage is maintained at a constant value, then very little information is sent. Instead, the voltage is changed very quickly and the information is encoded in the time varying pattern. i.e. you can transmit a series of bits by turning the voltage on and off. In a similar way, cells can transmit messages in the dynamical concentration of signalling molecules.

A recent paper ‘Multidimensional biochemical information processing of dynamical patterns’ by Yoshihiko Hasegawa from the University of Tokyo examines how a simple model of cell sensing can extract the most information from a time varying concentration. 

The model assumes that the cell sees is a combination of two separate signals encoded in the same molecule, one signal with a fast variation and one with a slow one (see figure). The challenge for the cell is to work out the strength of each individual component from the combined signal that it sees. The better it does, the more information it has. This challenge is complicated by the fact that the cell's readout is not 100% accurate. 

The signal is made by summing a fast signal and a slow signal

The author assumes that the cell has two decoding channels (cell-surface receptors with an associated downstream network) by which to process the signal. They find that when the cell's readout is accurate, the information is maximised when each decoder independently detects one component each. By contrast, when the cell's readout is inaccurate, it is better to have two identical decoders that are simply giving independent estimates of the overall signal strength, without trying to tease out the individual components.

The author then shows how to construct chemical reaction networks that implement the optimal decoders. They find that a possible network for the decoder is a large cascade network with additional feedback and feed-forward loops, which has been found in real biological signalling networks. They also show that the number of molecular species in these cascades can be reduced and the response function is still approximately correct.