Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

An Economic Approach to Energy Budgets: How Many Resources Should Living Organisms Spare?

Version 1 : Received: 13 October 2021 / Approved: 15 October 2021 / Online: 15 October 2021 (17:04:45 CEST)

How to cite: Tozzi, A. An Economic Approach to Energy Budgets: How Many Resources Should Living Organisms Spare?. Preprints 2021, 2021100234. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0234.v1 Tozzi, A. An Economic Approach to Energy Budgets: How Many Resources Should Living Organisms Spare?. Preprints 2021, 2021100234. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202110.0234.v1

Abstract

Ramsey’s economic theory of saving (RTS) estimates how much of its commodities a nation should save to safeguard the well-being of future generations. Since RTS retains many attractive qualities such as simplicity, strength, breadth and generality, here we ask if it would be useful to investigate biophysical issues. Specifically, we focus on a biological topic that lends itself as a backdrop for the study of the imbalance between intake and expenditure, i.e., the evaluation of the multicellular living organisms’ energetic requirements and constraints. Our problem is to find at each time the optimum distribution and the right balance of the cellular energy budget between consumption and storage: how much must a living organism spare to increase its chances of survival over long periods? Suggesting how to find the optimum allocation of the available energy between expenditure and saving at each time, RTS approaches to biological energy budgets may have a wide range of experimental applications, such as: a) optimization of the long-term survival chances of either immortalized cell cultures, or beneficial bacterial colonies and exogenous probiotic mixtures; b) eradication of detrimental biofilms, such as, e.g., heart valves’ Streptococcus colonies; c) novel anti-stress and anti-ageing strategies.

Keywords

economics; ATP; energy budget; cellular activity; ageing; prebiotic

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology

Comments (0)

We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our Diversity statement.

Leave a public comment
Send a private comment to the author(s)
* All users must log in before leaving a comment
Views 0
Downloads 0
Comments 0
Metrics 0


×
Alerts
Notify me about updates to this article or when a peer-reviewed version is published.
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here.