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Main Authors: Cui, Ziyi, Marzen, Sarah
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02446
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author Cui, Ziyi
Marzen, Sarah
author_facet Cui, Ziyi
Marzen, Sarah
contents Bacterial chemotactic sensing converts noisy chemical signals into running and tumbling. We analyze the static sensing limits of mixed Tar/Tsr chemoreceptor clusters in individual Escherichia coli cells using a heterogeneous Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model. By sweeping a seven-dimensional parameter space, we compute three sensing performance metrics-channel capacity, dynamic range, and effective Hill coefficient. Across E. coli-like parameter regimes, we consistently observe pronounced global maxima of channel capacity and global maxima of the related dynamic range, whereas the effective Hill coefficient does not exhibit comparable optimization. The capacity-achieving input distribution is bimodal, which implies that individual cells maximize information by sampling both low- and high-concentration regimes. Together, these results suggest that, at the individual-cell level, channel capacity and dynamic range may be selected for in E. coli receptor clusters.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_02446
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Apparent Selection Pressure for Dynamic Range and Channel Capacity in Bacterial Chemotactic Sensors
Cui, Ziyi
Marzen, Sarah
Quantitative Methods
Bacterial chemotactic sensing converts noisy chemical signals into running and tumbling. We analyze the static sensing limits of mixed Tar/Tsr chemoreceptor clusters in individual Escherichia coli cells using a heterogeneous Monod-Wyman-Changeux (MWC) model. By sweeping a seven-dimensional parameter space, we compute three sensing performance metrics-channel capacity, dynamic range, and effective Hill coefficient. Across E. coli-like parameter regimes, we consistently observe pronounced global maxima of channel capacity and global maxima of the related dynamic range, whereas the effective Hill coefficient does not exhibit comparable optimization. The capacity-achieving input distribution is bimodal, which implies that individual cells maximize information by sampling both low- and high-concentration regimes. Together, these results suggest that, at the individual-cell level, channel capacity and dynamic range may be selected for in E. coli receptor clusters.
title Apparent Selection Pressure for Dynamic Range and Channel Capacity in Bacterial Chemotactic Sensors
topic Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02446