Fig. 2: Predicted vs. observed concentrations in a glucose-limited chemostat.
From: The protein translation machinery is expressed for maximal efficiency in Escherichia coli
Growth rate μ = 0.35 h−1 (for other conditions, see Supplementary Fig. 1). The solid line shows the expected identity, whereas the upper and lower dashed lines show prediction errors of 2x and 0.5x, respectively. Predictions for ribosome, EF-Tu, EF-Ts, mRNA, and total tRNA are highly accurate, with Pearson’s R2 = 0.99 and geometric mean fold-error GMFE = 1.13, i.e., predictions based purely on a physico-chemical model and the assumption of cost minimization are on average 13% off. Predictions for individual tRNA species are somewhat less accurate, GMFE = 1.64. Experimentally determined concentrations of the ribosome (averaged over all ribosomal proteins), EF-Tu, and EF-Ts are from ref. 28. mRNA30 and tRNA29 concentrations are interpolated values based on growth rates. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
