Thermodynamic limits on general far-from-equilibrium molecular templating networks
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Author(s)
Qureshi, Benjamin
Poulton, Jenny
Ouldridge, Thomas
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Cells maintain a highly specific, far-from-equilibrium population of RNA and protein molecules. They do so via complex reaction networks in which templates catalyse the assembly of desired products. We show that information transmission from templates to products in such networks is bounded by functions of the maximal difference in free-energy changes between assembly path-ways. Surprisingly, putative systems operating at the bounds do not have a high net flux around the network, as is typical in far-from-equilibrium systems and observed in biology. Instead, the upper bound on accuracy for a given network structure is achieved in “pseudo-equilibrium”. Here, each product is produced and degraded by time-reversed trajectories along a single (product-specific) pathway with negligible entropy production; product yields are determined by the free-energy changes along those pathways. The limit imposed by these free-energy changes induces a thermodynamic constraint on accuracy, even if a single templating process is arbitrarily kinetically selective.
Date Issued
2026-01-05
Date Acceptance
2025-10-23
Citation
Newton, 2026, 2 (1)
ISSN
2950-6360
Publisher
Cell Press
Journal / Book Title
Newton
Volume
2
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Publication Status
Published
Article Number
100302
Date Publish Online
2025-11-14