Optimal Design of a Molecular Recognizer: Molecular Recognition as a Bayesian Signal Detection Problem

Details Optimal Design of a Molecular Recognizer: Molecular Recognition as a Bayesian Signal Detection Problem Optimal Design of a Molecular Recognizer: Molecular Recognition as a Bayesian Signal Detection Problem

2010-07-26

arxiv.org/abs/1007.4527v1

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, vol. 2, issue 3, pp. 390-399, 2008

Biology

Quantitative Biology

Molecular Networks

Bayesian detection, conformational changes, molecular recognition, specificity. http://www.weizmann.ac.il/complex/tlusty/paper

Scientific paper

10.1109/JSTSP.2008.923859

Numerous biological functions-such as enzymatic catalysis, the immune response system, and the DNA-protein regulatory network-rely on the ability of molecules to specifically recognize target molecules within a large pool of similar competitors in a noisy biochemical environment. Using the basic framework of signal detection theory, we treat the molecular recognition process as a signal detection problem and examine its overall performance. Thus, we evaluate the optimal properties of a molecular recognizer in the presence of competition and noise. Our analysis reveals that the optimal design undergoes a "phase transition" as the structural properties of the molecules and interaction energies between them vary. In one phase, the recognizer should be complementary in structure to its target (like a lock and a key), while in the other, conformational changes upon binding, which often accompany molecular recognition, enhance recognition quality. Using this framework, the abundance of conformational changes may be explained as a result of increasing the fitness of the recognizer. Furthermore, this analysis may be used in future design of artificial signal processing devices based on biomolecules.

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