The idea that we could build molecular communications systems can be advanced by investigating how actual molecules from living organisms function. Information theory provides tools for such an investigation. This review describes how we can compute the average information in the DNA binding sites of any genetic control protein and how this can be extended to analyze its individual sites. A formula equivalent to Claude Shannon’s channel capacity can be applied to molecular systems and used to compute the efficiency of protein binding. This efficiency is often 70% and a brief explanation for that is given. The results imply that biological systems have evolved to function at channel capacity, which means that we should be able to build molecular communications that are just as robust as our macroscopic ones.

通过研究来自生物体的实际分子如何发挥作用，可以推进我们构建分子通信系统的想法。信息论为此类调查提供了工具。这篇综述描述了我们如何计算任何遗传控制蛋白的 DNA 结合位点的平均信息，以及如何扩展到分析其各个位点。相当于克劳德香农通道容量的公式可以应用于分子系统并用于计算蛋白质结合的效率。该效率通常为 70%，并对此进行了简要说明。结果表明，生物系统已经进化到能够以通道容量发挥作用，这意味着我们应该能够建立与宏观通讯一样强大的分子通讯。