Dynamical Allocation of Cellular Resources as an Optimal Control Problem: Novel Insights into Microbial Growth Strategies.

ABSTRACT: Microbial physiology exhibits growth laws that relate the macromolecular composition of the cell to the growth rate. Recent work has shown that these empirical regularities can be derived from coarse-grained models of resource allocation. While these studies focus on steady-state growth, such conditions are rarely found in natural habitats, where microorganisms are continually challenged by environmental fluctuations. The aim of this paper is to extend the study of microbial growth strategies to dynamical environments, using a self-replicator model. We formulate dynamical growth maximization as an optimal control problem that can be solved using Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. We compare this theoretical gold standard with different possible implementations of growth control in bacterial c

SUBMITTER: Giordano N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4784908 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature