Extended Data Fig. 4: Aggregate size distribution shifts in response to experimental perturbation.

The aggregate size distributions revealed by our deterministic model (shaded) shift in response to inhibition of Sup35 synthesis (a, b) or Hsp104-mediated fragmentation (c, d) after 90 min (solid, unshaded),180 min (dashed, unshaded), 270 min (dotted, unshaded) or at its steady-state (gray, unshaded) for strains propagating [PSI⁺]^Strong with a seed size of 5 (a, c) or [PSI⁺]^Weak with a seed size of fifteen (b, d). e, The distribution of aggregate sizes before (X_i, solid black) and after (C_i(t), dashed black) t minutes of inhibition of Sup35 synthesis is shown. The shift in the size distribution, S(t), is quantified as the area between the curves when C_i(t) > X_i (shaded area). f, The size distribution of Sup35 aggregates from a strain propagating [PSI⁺]^Weak with a seed size of five (shaded) shifts upon inhibition of Sup35 synthesis for 90 min (solid, unshaded), 180 min (dashed, unshaded), 270 min (dotted, unshaded) or at its steady-state (gray, unshaded). g, and h, The shifts in aggregate size distribution over a range of fragmentation and conversion rates that match the steady-state soluble level of Sup35 were monitored at 90 min (solid), 180 min (dashed), 270 min (dotted) and steady-state (gray) for a strain propagating [PSI⁺]^Weak with a seed size of five (g) or fifteen (h). The x-axis shows the fragmentation rate scaled to the strain-specific value in Supplementary Table 2 (vertical black line). While [PSI+]^Weak with a seed size of five (g) shifts slowly to its steady-state distribution, [PSI⁺]^Weak with a seed size of fifteen (h) rapidly reaches is steady-state distribution, matching our empirical observations (Fig. 4a).