Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Applied Biosystems - More Veriti

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 25 August 2005
Science 23 September 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5743, pp. 2075 - 2078
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114383
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Phenotypic Diversity, Population Growth, and Information in Fluctuating Environments

Edo Kussell* and Stanislas Leibler

Organisms in fluctuating environments must constantly adapt their behavior to survive. In clonal populations, this may be achieved through sensing followed by response or through the generation of diversity by stochastic phenotype switching. Here we show that stochastic switching can be favored over sensing when the environment changes infrequently. The optimal switching rates then mimic the statistics of environmental changes. We derive a relation between the long-term growth rate of the organism and the information available about its fluctuating environment.

Laboratory of Living Matter and Center for Studies in Physics and Biology, The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, Box 34, New York, NY 10021–6399, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: kussele{at}rockefeller.edu

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)