FIG 2 .

Effect of the number of genes carried by the operon. The number of different proteins in the complex (genes carried by the operon) affects the average number of complexes formed in the operon (black) and split (red) arrangements (〈C_O〉 and 〈C_S〉) in units of average production of each protein (A) (A), the percent gain due to the operon arrangement $\left[100\times \left(\langle C_O\text{〉−〈}{C}_S\rangle \right)/\langle C_S\rangle \right]$ (B), and the coefficient of variance (σ/〈x〉) of the number of complexes formed for the operon and split arrangements (C). Stochastic simulations were performed as shown for Fig. 1, with an average of 100 (left) or 5,000 (right) of each protein produced per cell generation.