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Homepage 2. Newsroom 3. What Termites and Cells Have in Common What termites and cells have in common A synthetic cell with life-like properties reveals fundamental principles of morphogenesis and perception June 24, 2021 Cell Biology Synthetic Biology Nature is full of fascinating patterns. Plants show beautiful spiral growth, regularly arranged leaves and petals, animals impress us with their striped and dotted furs and social insects build complex nest structures. These almost perfectly arranged patterns seem to arise without a blue print, like the emergence of cellular shapes during embryonic development called morphogenesis. A team of interdisciplinary researchers led by Philippe Bastiaens, director at the Max-Planck-Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, has created a life-like proto-cell energized by chemical potential, which is capable of translating external signals into shape changes in dependence on its own self-organized morphology. With this, the team has revealed how the collective dynamics of nanometer-sized macromolecules self-organize into micrometer patterns that affect the cellular perception of shape-changing extracellular cues in our own cells. This interdependence between shape and information processing that is mediated by the deformable plasma membrane is a fundamental feature of living cells and enables them to respond to an ever changing environment in dependence on their prior experience. How stigmergy in the termite-sand-system (left) and in the proto-cell (right) leads to the emergence of new structures. (c) MPI f. molekulare Physiologie How stigmergy in the termite-sand-system (left) and in the proto-cell (right) leads to the emergence of new structures. (c) MPI f. molekulare Physiologie Seemingly headless, thousands of termites crawl over the ground carrying and dropping sand grains. And although the termites do not have a construction plan, a regular pattern of sand pillars emerges as if from nowhere. In this termite-sand system the termites provide the energy to restructure the sand into a living, dynamic building that is in continuous coupling with an ever changing environment. Bastiaens's interdisciplinary group of biochemists and applied as well as theoretical physicists has now shown that a very similar situation occurs in our cells that use chemical potential as an energy source to generate dynamically maintained structures consisting of molecules instead of sand grains. The out-of-equilibrium, energized state that enables this collective behavior is a property of living matter to generate and stabilize a dynamically maintained identity in an ever changing world. How Apparent Coincidence Becomes Form One characteristic of self-organizing processes is random fluctuations that can be amplified by local interactions between agents. When termites make their random walks for example, they pick up and drop sand grains, which leads to fluctuations in the density of sand. However, during the reshuffling of the sand, the termites leave a pheromone scent on the sand grains that they have carried around that increases the drop chances of another loaded termite randomly passing by. This leads to a self-amplification of sand piles that depletes the free sand grains. The process of amplification and depletion leads to a regular pattern of sand pillars that forms the fundament of their nest. This phenomenon, called stigmergy, which means 'leaving a sign on work in progress' was first described by the French zoologist Pierre-Paul Grasse in 1959 and explains how the indirect communication of social insects via sand leads to a collective behavior that generates dynamical structures such as sand pillars, that are organized in a regular way. The termite queen communicates with this self-organizing termite-sand system by emitting a pheromone gradient. This functions as a template to have a dynamic building being built around her that adapts to her growing size. Molecular Self-Organization Gets Cells into Shape In order to study if the principles of the stigmergic collective behavior of the termite-sand system also apply for the self-organization of biomolecules in cellular morphogenesis, Bastiaens's group build a synthetic cell with life-like properties by encapsulating lifeless biological building blocks within a deformable lipid membrane and put life into them by energizing the system with ATP/GTP chemical potential. This now out-of-equilibrium encapsulated system consisted of a dynamic microtubule cytoskeleton as well as a light responsive molecular signaling module that operates akin to natural morphogen signaling. In cellular morphogenesis the emergence of new structures occurs by the deformation of the plasma membrane by dynamic rearrangements of the cytoskeleton. Extracellular morphogens guide this process by binding to receptors on the cell membrane. Information is transduced inside the cell by rebalancing intracellular phosphorylation reaction cycles. This generates intracellular chemical signaling gradients that locally promote growth of the cytoskeleton. The scientist have recreated this process by engineering a light responsive signaling system that translocates a bioengineered kinase to the membrane, which rebalances phosphorylation reaction cycles of the tubulin sequestration molecule Stathmin. They could thereby show that what actually promotes cytoskeletal growth is that these phosphorylation cycles operate like a molecular machine that continuously pumps microtubule building blocks towards the membrane. Stigmergic Principles in Cellular Morphogenesis The ideas of the scientists turned out to be true as their life-like proto-cells revealed that both the cytoskeleton as well as the signaling system self-organize into different patterns by interaction with the membrane according to the same stigmergic principles as the termite-sand system. In case of the cytoskeleton, a small protrusion of the membrane formed by the local growth of a microtubule captures more microtubules, thereby amplifying the growth of the protrusion that depletes the free microtubules. In case of the signaling system, the recruitment of the kinase to the membrane results in self-amplified clusters that deplete the free kinase. Even more, the researchers could show that indirect communication between the signaling and cytoskeletal system was mediated by the deformable membrane leading to self-organized shapes such as star-like or polar structures. They could also demonstrate that localized extracellular signaling cues operate akin to the pheromone emitting termite queen, providing a chemical template that directs the self-organizing termite-sand system to have a dynamic building being structured around her. In case of the proto-cells, the signaling gradient constrained the self-organizing solutions of the bi-directionally communicating signaling and cytoskeletal systems to reorganize the life-like cells in the direction of extracellular cues. However, this response to extracellular cues was very much dependent on the initial, self-organized shape of the proto cells, which makes their response subjective to their prior experience that shaped them. Cellular Perception Emerges from the Interdependence of Shape and Signaling The balance of the two recursively interacting stigmergic systems turned out to determine the basal morphology of the proto-cell, for example if it had a polar or star-like shape. When basal signaling dominated over microtubule-induced membrane deformation, proto-cells exhibited star-like morphology whereas when microtubule-induced deformations dominated over signaling, the proto cells became polar. Changing the balance between the stigmergic systems by an extracellular signal can reshape a star into a polar shape but not the other way around. This shows that morphing of cells is not solely guided by an unidirectional information flow from extracellular cues, but is also determined by the morphology of the cell itself as shaped by prior events. "Whether cells in a developing healthy or diseased tissue respond to their environment in dependence on prior experience is a big question in the field of cell and developmental biology. Our work shows, that cells do not behave like simple input-output machines but integrate previous experiences in their response to an ever changing environment. In a developing tissue the environment of cells consists of other cells and our self-organized proto-cells have the potential to establish recursive communication among them via the property of mechano-sensing that emerges from the recursive coupling between the signaling and cytoskeletal system. This could thereby enable us to investigate how recursive communication between self-organized molecular systems within cells leads to self-organized tissue formation at the higher scale", concludes Philippe Bastiaens. * Science Magazine * Events * Images of Science * On Location * Infographics Contact Prof. Dr. Philippe Bastiaens Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund +49 231 1332-200 philippe.bastiaens@mpi-dortmund.mpg.de Johann Jarzombek Press and Public Relations Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund +49 231 133-2252 johann.jarzombek@mpi-dortmund.mpg.de Original publication Gavriljuk K, Scocozza B, Ghasemalizadeh F, Seidel H, Nandan AP, Campos-Medina M, Schmick M, Koseska A & Bastiaens PIH A self-organized synthetic morphogenic liposome responds with shape changes to local light cues Nature Communications. 2021 Mar 9;12(1):1548. Source DOI Navigation Other Interesting Articles Manufacturing the core engine of cell division June 30, 2021 Cell Biology Synthetic Biology By modelling the kinetochore from scratch, Max Planck Institute's researchers get a step closer to creating artificial chromosomes Gut to brain: nerve cells detect what we eat June 02, 2021 Brain Cell Biology Medicine Nerve cells of the vagus nerve fulfil opposing tasks Top address for life science research April 29, 2021 Cell Biology Neurobiology Research Policy Bavaria invests up to 500 million euros in the competitive development of the Martinsried Max Planck Campus into an outstanding international research hub Keeping sperm cells on track January 07, 2021 Cell Biology Researchers point to a new mechanism underlying male infertility Scientific highlights 2020 December 21, 2020 Ageing Astronomy Astrophysics Black Holes Brain Corona Evolutionary Biology Galaxies Genome Editing (Crispr) Language Materials Sciences (M&T) Neanderthals Neurobiology Quantum Physics Structural Biology Synthetic Biology Many publications by Max Planck scientists in 2020 were of great social relevance or met with a great media response. We have selected 13 articles to present you with an overview of some noteworthy research of the year The web of death September 10, 2020 Cell Biology Chemistry (M&T) Medicine A new approach to cancer therapy: molecular networks drive tumor cells into self-destruction Nerve cells with energy saving program August 28, 2020 Cell Biology Thanks to a metabolic adjustment, the cells can remain functional despite damage to the mitochondria Energy for artificial cells July 28, 2020 Synthetic Biology Researchers make the proton pump of the respiratory chain work in an artificial polymer membrane The relationship of proteins June 17, 2020 Cell Biology Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry have for the first time uncovered the proteome of 100 organisms from all domains of life A close relationship: the brain and its blood vessels June 15, 2020 Brain Cell Biology Study shows how blood vessels sense the metabolic state of neuronal cells Building with DNA June 10, 2020 Cell Biology Synthetic Biology Life on Earth developed from inanimate components. Can we recreate this process in the laboratory, and what tools do we need for this? Using DNA origami, the art of folding at a scale of just a few millionths of a millimetre, we are able to reconstruct individual cellular components. They may be capable of taking over important tasks in our bodies in future. top Useful Links * President * Facts & Figures * Research Services * Doctoral Students Social Media * Facebook * Twitter * YouTube * Instagram * Netiquette * Contact * Alumni * Events * Keyword Collection * RSS Max-Planck-Gesellschaft * Purchase * Site Map * Imprint * Privacy Policy (c) 2021, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (c) 2003-2021, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Web-View Print Page Open in new window Estimated DIN-A4 page-width Go to Editor View [piwik]