70% efficiency of bistate molecular machines explained by information theory, high dimensional geometry and evolutionary convergence.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between information and energy is key to understanding biological systems. We can display the information in DNA sequences specifically bound by proteins by using sequence logos, and we can measure the corresponding binding energy. These can be compared by noting that one of the forms of the second law of thermodynamics defines the minimum energy dissipation required to gain one bit of information. Under the isothermal conditions that molecular machines function this is Emin = Kb T ln 2 joules per bit (kB is Boltzmann's constant and T is the absolute temperature). Then an efficiency of binding can be computed by dividing the information in a logo by the free energy of binding after it has been converted to bits. The isothermal efficiencies of not only genetic control syste

SUBMITTER: Schneider TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2952855 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature