細胞信號傳遞的物理極限

Abstract

生物受器可量測細胞外訊號分子濃度，在細胞間的訊息傳遞扮演關鍵角色，因此過去數十年來有一系列相關研究。然而在過去研究中，受器量測不準度公式總是假設該蛋白質為兩態系統。此論文關心假如兩態模型不足以描述某蛋白質動力行為，如何推廣過去量測不準度公式到高維模型? 假如兩態模型跟高維模型可一樣好地描述該蛋白質的動力行為，他們預言的量測不準度也都相同嗎?假如是，數學理由是什麼。我們以Bialek的公式為例，回答以上問題。

Biological receptors are capable of measuring the concentration of extracellular signaling molecules. They play an important role in cross-cellular information processing. Therefore, there have been a series of studies in the past decades. However, the measurement uncertainty formulae derived in the past studies are always based on the assumption of two-state model for these receptors. This thesis is concerned with how to generalize these formulae to high-dimensional models if the kinetics of some receptor proteins cannot be described by two-state models. Furthermore, whether all high-dimensional models will predict the same measurement uncertainty if they are kinetically equivalent to each other and what is the mathematical reason for that. To answer these questions, Bialek’s formula will be taken as an example.