Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Phenotypic spandrel: absolute discrimination and ligand antagonism

Paul Francois, Kyle A Johnson, Laura N Saunders
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/036293
Paul Francois
Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T8
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Kyle A Johnson
Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T8
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laura N Saunders
Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T8
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

We consider the general problem of absolute discrimination between categories of ligands irrespective of their concentration. An instance of this problem is immune discrimination between self and not-self. We connect this problem to biochemical adaptation, and establish that ligand antagonism - the ability of sub threshold ligands to negatively impact response - is a necessary consequence of absolute discrimination.Thus antagonism constitutes a “phenotypic spandrel”: a phenotype existing as a necessary by-product of another phenotype. We exhibit a simple analytic model of absolute discrimination displaying ligand antagonism, where antagonism strength is linear in distance from threshold. This contrasts with proofreading based models, where antagonism vanishes far from threshold and thus displays an inverted hierarchy of antagonism compared to simple model. The phenotypic spandrel studied here is expected to structure many decision pathways such as immune detection mediated by TCRs and FceRIs.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted January 10, 2016.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Phenotypic spandrel: absolute discrimination and ligand antagonism
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Phenotypic spandrel: absolute discrimination and ligand antagonism
Paul Francois, Kyle A Johnson, Laura N Saunders
bioRxiv 036293; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/036293
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Phenotypic spandrel: absolute discrimination and ligand antagonism
Paul Francois, Kyle A Johnson, Laura N Saunders
bioRxiv 036293; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/036293

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Systems Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2428)
  • Biochemistry (4784)
  • Bioengineering (3328)
  • Bioinformatics (14657)
  • Biophysics (6630)
  • Cancer Biology (5163)
  • Cell Biology (7417)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4357)
  • Ecology (6869)
  • Epidemiology (2057)
  • Evolutionary Biology (9905)
  • Genetics (7341)
  • Genomics (9510)
  • Immunology (4545)
  • Microbiology (12658)
  • Molecular Biology (4937)
  • Neuroscience (28285)
  • Paleontology (199)
  • Pathology (804)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1388)
  • Physiology (2019)
  • Plant Biology (4487)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (977)
  • Synthetic Biology (1297)
  • Systems Biology (3909)
  • Zoology (725)