%0 Journal Article %T Trading bits in the readout from a genetic network %+ Department of Physics, Princeton University (DPPU) %+ Harvard University %+ Physique des fonctions biologiques / Physics of Biological Functions %+ Princeton University %+ CUNY Graduate Center (The Graduate Center) %A Bauer, Marianne %A Petkova, Mariela, D %A Gregor, Thomas %A Wieschaus, Eric, F %A Bialek, William %Z This work was supported in part by the US NSF, through the Center for the Physics of Biological Function (PHY–1734030) and the Center for the Science of Information (CCF–0939370); by NIH Grant R01GM097275; by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung; and by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. %@ 0027-8424 %J Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America %I National Academy of Sciences %V 118 %N 46 %P e2109011118 %8 2021-12 %D 2021 %R 10.1073/pnas.2109011118 %M 34772813 %Z Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Biological Physics [physics.bio-ph] %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biochemistry, Molecular Biology/Molecular Networks [q-bio.MN] %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Development Biology %Z Life Sciences [q-bio]/Quantitative Methods [q-bio.QM]Journal articles %X In genetic networks, information of relevance to the organism is represented by the concentrations of transcription factor molecules. In order to extract this information the cell must effectively "measure"' these concentrations, but there are physical limits to the precision of these measurements. We explore this trading between bits of precision in measuring concentration and bits of relevant information that can be extracted, using the gap gene network in the early fly embryo as an example. We argue that cells in the embryo can extract all the available information about their position, but only if the concentration measurements approach the physical limits to information capacity. These limits necessitate the observed proliferation of enhancer elements with sensitivities to combinations of transcription factors, but fine tuning of the parameters of these multiple enhancers is not required. %G English %2 https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-03216308v2/document %2 https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-03216308v2/file/bauer%2Bal_210831.pdf %L pasteur-03216308 %U https://pasteur.hal.science/pasteur-03216308 %~ PASTEUR %~ CNRS %~ UMR3738 %~ PHYSICS-BIOLOGICAL-FUNCTIONS