Engineering self-organized criticality in living cells
Vidiella, Blai (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (Barcelona))
Guillamon, Antoni (Centre de Recerca Matemàtica)
Sardanyés, Josep (Centre de Recerca Matemàtica)
Maull, Victor (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (Barcelona))
Pla, Jordi (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (Barcelona))
Conde-Pueyo, Nuria (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (Barcelona))
Solé, Ricard (Santa Fe Institute)

Date:	2021
Abstract:	Complex dynamical fluctuations, from intracellular noise, brain dynamics or computer traffic display bursting dynamics consistent with a critical state between order and disorder. Living close to the critical point has adaptive advantages and it has been conjectured that evolution could select these critical states. Is this the case of living cells? A system can poise itself close to the critical point by means of the so-called self-organized criticality (SOC). In this paper we present an engineered gene network displaying SOC behaviour. This is achieved by exploiting the saturation of the proteolytic degradation machinery in E. coli cells by means of a negative feedback loop that reduces congestion. Our critical motif is built from a two-gene circuit, where SOC can be successfully implemented. The potential implications for both cellular dynamics and behaviour are discussed.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PID2019-111680GB-I00 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RTI2018-098322-B-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación RYC-2017-22243 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2017-SGR-1049 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PGC-2018-098676-B-100 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad RTI2018-093860-B-C21
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Criticality ; Genetic circuit engineering
Published in:	Nature communications, Vol. 12 (July 2021) , art. 4415, ISSN 2041-1723
Related work:	Vidiella, Blai; Guillamon, Antoni ; Sardanyés, Josep ; [et al.]. «Author Correction : Engineering self-organized criticality in living cells». Nature communications, Vol. 12 (September 2021), art. 5699 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25603-6

Correcció de l'article: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/273299
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24695-4
PMID: 34285228

10 p, 2.4 MB

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