Abstract
In a recentPNASpublication, Kirby and Zilman argued that when stochasticity is taken into account, having more steps in kinetic proofreading generally does not improve the discrimination of different receptor-binding ligands based on the counts of signaling molecules produced [1]. However, their conclusion is based on a major technical error that, once corrected, contradicts their main conclusion. Also, throughout their analysis, the authors made the implicit assumption that discrimination time is fixed. We argue below that, for a fuller understanding, kinetic proofreading for ligand discrimination should be studied in the context of speedaccuracy tradeoffs.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory