Mostly Biomathematics Lunchtime Seminar

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Bounds on unicellular doubling rates from ribosome self-replication

Speaker: Sarah Kostinski, NYU Physics, Assistant Professor

Location: Warren Weaver Hall 1314

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023, 12:45 p.m.

Synopsis:

Ribosomes generate all protein in a cell but themselves are composed of protein (and RNA), which leads to a self-replication loop: Existing ribosomes must build protein for new ribosomes.  This self-replication loop was studied in an attempt to derive a bound on bacterial doubling rates.  It turns out that ribosomal RNA production leads to another replication loop and is the missing piece necessary to establish a hard bound on cellular doubling rates.  I will review experimental data and the corresponding minimal kinetic model for these replication loops, and show how several “bacterial growth laws” emerge.