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Abstract

Cellular processes are inherently noisy, and the selection for accurate
responses in presence of noise has likely shaped signalling networks.
Here, we investigate the trade-off between accuracy of information
transmission and its energetic cost for a mitogen-activated protein
kinase (MAPK) signalling cascade. Our analysis of the pheromone response
pathway of budding yeast suggests that dose-dependent induction of the
negative transcriptional feedbacks in this network maximizes the
information per unit energetic cost, rather than the information
transmission capacity itself. We further demonstrate that futile cycling
of MAPK phosphorylation and dephosphorylation has a measurable effect on
growth fitness, with energy dissipation within the signalling cascade
thus likely being subject to evolutionary selection. Considering
optimization of accuracy versus the energetic cost of information
processing, a concept well established in physics and engineering, may
thus offer a general framework to understand the regulatory design of
cellular signalling systems.