article published yes Alejandro Granados author Julian Pietsch author Sarah A Cepeda Humerez author 3DEE19A4-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87 Isebail Farquhar author Gasper Tkacik author 3D494DCA-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A870000-0002-6699-1455 Peter Swain author GaTk department Biophysics of information processing in gene regulation project Although cells respond specifically to environments, how environmental identity is encoded intracellularly is not understood. Here, we study this organization of information in budding yeast by estimating the mutual information between environmental transitions and the dynamics of nuclear translocation for 10 transcription factors. Our method of estimation is general, scalable, and based on decoding from single cells. The dynamics of the transcription factors are necessary to encode the highest amounts of extracellular information, and we show that information is transduced through two channels: Generalists (Msn2/4, Tod6 and Dot6, Maf1, and Sfp1) can encode the nature of multiple stresses, but only if stress is high; specialists (Hog1, Yap1, and Mig1/2) encode one particular stress, but do so more quickly and for a wider range of magnitudes. In particular, Dot6 encodes almost as much information as Msn2, the master regulator of the environmental stress response. Each transcription factor reports differently, and it is only their collective behavior that distinguishes between multiple environmental states. Changes in the dynamics of the localization of transcription factors thus constitute a precise, distributed internal representation of extracellular change. We predict that such multidimensional representations are common in cellular decision-making. National Academy of Sciences2018 eng 29784812 00043411490007110.1073/pnas.1716659115 115236088 - 6093 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/6473 Granados, Alejandro, Julian Pietsch, Sarah A Cepeda Humerez, Isebail Farquhar, Gašper Tkačik, and Peter Swain. “Distributed and Dynamic Intracellular Organization of Extracellular Information.” <i>PNAS</i>. National Academy of Sciences, 2018. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115</a>. A. Granados, J. Pietsch, S. A. Cepeda Humerez, I. Farquhar, G. Tkačik, and P. Swain, “Distributed and dynamic intracellular organization of extracellular information,” <i>PNAS</i>, vol. 115, no. 23. National Academy of Sciences, pp. 6088–6093, 2018. A. Granados, J. Pietsch, S.A. Cepeda Humerez, I. Farquhar, G. Tkačik, P. Swain, PNAS 115 (2018) 6088–6093. Granados, A., Pietsch, J., Cepeda Humerez, S. A., Farquhar, I., Tkačik, G., &#38; Swain, P. (2018). Distributed and dynamic intracellular organization of extracellular information. <i>PNAS</i>. National Academy of Sciences. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115</a> Granados A, Pietsch J, Cepeda Humerez SA, Farquhar I, Tkačik G, Swain P. 2018. Distributed and dynamic intracellular organization of extracellular information. PNAS. 115(23), 6088–6093. Granados A, Pietsch J, Cepeda Humerez SA, Farquhar I, Tkačik G, Swain P. Distributed and dynamic intracellular organization of extracellular information. <i>PNAS</i>. 2018;115(23):6088-6093. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115">10.1073/pnas.1716659115</a> Granados, Alejandro, et al. “Distributed and Dynamic Intracellular Organization of Extracellular Information.” <i>PNAS</i>, vol. 115, no. 23, National Academy of Sciences, 2018, pp. 6088–93, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716659115">10.1073/pnas.1716659115</a>. 2812018-12-11T11:45:35Z2026-04-08T13:55:45Z