Figure 4

Examination of noisy partitioning due to low particle numbers. (a) Frequency of null transfer to the bud (or, equivalently, complete retention in the mother) for different total particle numbers N _T as a function of the forward transfer efficiency α, with β = 3α/2 (i.e., along the red line shown in Figure 3). The upper x-axis is expressed in terms of diffusion constant, assuming typical values for yeast budding of σ = 2/3, R = 2.5 μm, d = 1.25 μm, and T = 90 min (from Zhou et al. [18]). (b) Null transfer frequency phase space. Phase space of the logarithm (base 10) of the final mother fraction, log x, corresponding to the bud fraction, y = 1 ≠ x, displayed in Figure 3a. The frequency of null transfer is $f=x^{N_T}$ or log f = N _T Tlog x. The logarithm of f can therefore be efficiently obtained for a given N _T by its product with the displayed log x for any value of α and β. The solution phase space is color-coded from low (purple) to high (blue) logarithm of the final mother fraction.