Adaptive phosphate uptake behaviour of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans: analysis by a proportional flow-force relation.

The phosphate uptake system of the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans has the capacity to store information about former fluctuations in the environmental phosphate concentration. Using nonequilibrium thermodynamics to characterize this phenomenon we show that information storage leads to the development of an extended range of validity over which there is a proportional relationship between uptake rate and the driving force of this process. The limits of this range reflect the extent of earlier fluctuations in the environmental phosphate concentration.