Information Processing by Cyanobacteria during Adaptation to Environmental Phosphate Fluctuations.

Phosphate limited grown Anabaena variabilis has the capability of processing information about external phosphate fluctuations by means of interconnected adaptive events. Adaptive events are physiological processes that are characterized by two opposite manifestations, namely adapted states and adaptive operation modes. In adapted states the energy-converting constituents of the uptake system operate under the prevailing external conditions in a coherent manner with least energy dissipation.

The microbial experience of environmental phosphate fluctuations. An essay on the possibility of putting intentions into cell biochemistry.

We present a model of microbial information processing that contains characteristic features of the phenomenon of physiological adaptation. The backbone of the model is the "adaptive event" in which energy-converting subsystems of the cell interact with the changing environment. In this process, the subsystems pass, via an adaptive operation mode, from one adapted state to the next.