Self-replicator model accounts for bacterial growth laws.

<p><i>A:</i> Predicted quasi-linear relation between the maximal growth rate and the corresponding optimal resource allocation , for different values of <i>e</i>_<i>M</i> (different colors). The colored dots indicate and for <i>k</i>_<i>R</i> = 2.23 h^-1 and different <i>e</i>_<i>M</i>, and the dashed black line the relation for all intermediate values of <i>e</i>_<i>M</i>. The dashed colored lines indicate the relation between and obtained when, for a given value of <i>e</i>_<i>M</i>, the value of <i>k</i>_<i>R</i> is decreased (lower <i>k</i>_<i>R</i> leads to lower ). The solid grey curves correspond to (<i>μ</i>*, <i>α</i>)-profiles like those shown in <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004802#pcbi.1004802.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2<i>B</i></a>. <i>B:</i> Measured relation between the total RNA/protein mass ratio and the growth rate, in different growth media with different doses of a translation inhibitor (data from [<a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004802#pcbi.1004802.ref012" target="_blank">12</a>]). For each medium, indicated by a color, five different concentrations of inhibitor were used (higher dose leads to lower growth rate). Growth-medium compositions are given in the original publication and error bars represent standard deviations. The dashed black and colored lines are the same as in panel <i>A</i>, indicating the good quantitative correspondence between model predictions and experimental data for the chosen parameter values, obtained by fitting the model to the data points (see <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004802#sec010" target="_blank">Methods</a> for details).