Interactive Scenarios

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Exploring Allocation Scenarios

In the main text of the paper, we outline three plausible strategies cells may employ to determine the ribosomal allocation. These hypotheses are:

I. Allocation is constant across conditions (color: black). This means that the cell is “locked” into a specific physiology and will always maintain the proteomic composition, regardless of the environment.

II. Allocation is tuned to maintain elongation rate (color: green). Under this scenario, the ribosomal allocation is tuned such that the precursor concentration is maintained at the same level across conditions. This results in a constant translation rate across conditions.

II. Allocation is optimally tuned to achieve the fastest growth rate (color: blue). Here, the ribosomal content is tuned such that the growth rate in a given environmental condition and a given allocation to other proteins is maximized. This is not the same as saying growth rate is maximized, as is discussed in the main text.

For all three scenarios, we’ve derived closed-form expressions defining the ribosomal allocation parameter, which is presented in the main text. Here, we allow you to explore how different parameter combinations can change the behavior of these scenarios when examining the ribosomal allocation, translation rate, and steady-state growth rate.

Note that scenario I (constant allocation) allows you to pick whatever ribosomal allocation parameter you would like. This is done by adjusting the slider in the bottom-right corner of the control panel. Adjusting this slider does not impact the behavior of the other scenarios.