Precision of protein thermometry

TL;DR

This paper investigates the fundamental limits of temperature sensing precision in cells, revealing that intrinsic protein kinetics, rather than environmental fluctuations, primarily constrain accuracy, with a model predicting a 2% temperature estimation error.

Contribution

The study introduces a model linking protein kinetics to temperature sensing limits and validates it with bacterial in vivo data.

Findings

Cells can estimate temperature within approximately 2%.

Protein kinetics set the fundamental limit to temperature sensing precision.

The model aligns well with experimental bacterial data.

Abstract

Temperature sensing is a ubiquitous cell behavior, but the fundamental limits to the precision of temperature sensing are poorly understood. Unlike in chemical concentration sensing, the precision of temperature sensing is not limited by extrinsic fluctuations in the temperature field itself. Instead, we find that precision is limited by the intrinsic copy number, turnover, and binding kinetics of temperature-sensitive proteins. Developing a model based on the canonical TlpA protein, we find that a cell can estimate temperature to within 2%. We compare this prediction with in vivo data on temperature sensing in bacteria.