How cell behaviors are encoded in the physical chemistry of the proteome

Abstract:
Some behaviors of a biological cell are more a property of the general physics of the cell’s proteins, and less a matter of the individual biology of different genes and proteins.  For example, the rates of cell growth are very sensitive to temperature, and this can be explained in terms of the folding stabilities of proteins in the proteome.  And, cell growth rates depend on salt, and this can be explained as osmotic effects on the diffusion speeds of proteins in the cell.   These and other physical factors are subject to evolutionary pressures and can give insights into them