Emergence of robust growth laws from optimal regulation of ribosome synthesis


Date

2014-08

Publication Type

Journal Article

ETH Bibliography

yes

Citations

Altmetric

Data

Abstract

Bacteria must constantly adapt their growth to changes in nutrient availability; yet despite large‐scale changes in protein expression associated with sensing, adaptation, and processing different environmental nutrients, simple growth laws connect the ribosome abundance and the growth rate. Here, we investigate the origin of these growth laws by analyzing the features of ribosomal regulation that coordinate proteome‐wide expression changes with cell growth in a variety of nutrient conditions in the model organism Escherichia coli. We identify supply‐driven feedforward activation of ribosomal protein synthesis as the key regulatory motif maximizing amino acid flux, and autonomously guiding a cell to achieve optimal growth in different environments. The growth laws emerge naturally from the robust regulatory strategy underlying growth rate control, irrespective of the details of the molecular implementation. The study highlights the interplay between phenomenological modeling and molecular mechanisms in uncovering fundamental operating constraints, with implications for endogenous and synthetic design of microorganisms.

Publication status

published

Editor

Book title

Volume

10 (8)

Pages / Article No.

747

Publisher

Nature

Event

Edition / version

Methods

Software

Geographic location

Date collected

Date created

Subject

Growth control; Metabolic control; Phenomenological model; Resource allocation; Synthetic biology

Organisational unit

Notes

Funding

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