Title:

Gene expression economy, resource allocation and cell growth

Abstract:

Since the 1950s, scientists have delved into the intricate interplay between cell physiology and composition, exploring the quantitative relationships among growth rates and cellular components. These studies led to the concept of “growth laws”, which arise from mass conservation and the balance of biosynthetic transcription/translation fluxes, orchestrated by resource allocation changes across conditions.

In the talk I will introduce a transcription/translation gene expression model, showing how growth laws can be rationalized from fundamental principles of ribosome and RNAP allocation, alongside protein turnover dynamics. We thus uncover how trade-offs and resource allocation impact the steady-state cellular physiology across diverse cellular conditions and perturbations.