  The number of ribosomes in a cell is considered as limiting, and gene
expression is thus largely determined by their cellular concentration. In this
work we develop a toy model to study the trade-off between the ribosomal supply
and the demand of the translation machinery, dictated by the composition of the
transcript pool. Our equilibrium framework is useful to highlight qualitative
behaviours and new means of gene expression regulation determined by the fine
balance of this trade-off. We also speculate on the possible impact of these
mechanisms on cellular physiology.
