Physical constraints in intracellular signaling: the cost of sending a bit

Abstract

One of the primary computational requirements of a cellular system is the ability to transfer information between spatially separated components. To accomplish this, biology uses diverse physical channels including production or release of second-messengers molecules and electrical depolarization of the plasma membrane. To send reliable information, these processes must dissipate energy to compete with thermal noise, in some cases consuming a substantial fraction of the cellular energy budget. Here we bound the energetic efficiency of several physical strategies for communication, using tools from information theory and the fluctuation dissipation relations to quantify communication through a channel corrupted by thermal noise. We find a minimum energetic cost, in $k_B$T/bit for sending information as a function of the size of the sender and receiver, their spatial separation, and the communication latency. From these calculations construct a phase diagram indicating where each strategy is most efficient. In addition, these calculations provide an estimate for the energy costs associated with information processing arising from the physical constraints of the cellular environment.