Figure 5

Optimal regulatory programs in complex pathways.(A) Regulatory efforts (r e g _i , y-axis) for a converging pathway. (B) Regulatory efforts (r e g _i , y-axis) in a diverging pathway. Complete boxplots are shown in Additional file 1: Figures S19 and S20. (C) Validation of optimal regulatory strategies. The first row display the average length of promoter regions prior to a converging reaction in pathways and the second row the average length of promoter regions in enzymes catalyzing the converging reaction (data for 248 organisms). The third row displays the average relative promoter lengths prior to a pathway branch and the fourth row the average relative promoter lengths of enzymes of the branching reactions (data for 142 organisms). For clarity, the distribution is cut at the value of 1.5 in the positive quadrant of the x-axis. (D) The median of relative average promoter lengths at a branching reaction in adenosine nucleotide biosynthesis (data from 77 organisms) are shown. “Pre-branch” corresponds to promoter lengths of proteins catalyzing the reaction before the branch (Adk) and “branch” to the promoter lengths of proteins catalyzing the subsequent reactions.