Fig. 1. Mammalian secretory cells preferentially suppress more expensive proteins.
The bioenergetic cost of each secreted CHO (a) and human (c) protein was computed. The bioenergetic costs of five representative biotherapeutics produced in CHO cells are shown for comparison purposes (see Table 1). b Scatter plot and Spearman correlation of gene expression measured by ribosomal profiling and protein cost (in number of ATP per protein) in CHO cells from Kallehauge et al.12 during the early exponential growth phase of culture. d Spearman correlations between ATP cost and gene expression levels (measured by RNA-Seq) across human tissues1,58,59. Gene transcription levels from the Human Protein Atlas were analyzed against the ATP cost of producing the translated proteins. All p-values associated with each correlation are < 1 × 10-20. Highly secretory tissues show the strongest negative correlation of secreted protein cost vs. mRNA expression levels. RPKM = reads per kilobase of transcript per million. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.