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Engineering self-organized criticality in living cells

View ORCID ProfileBlai Vidiella, Antoni Guillamon, Josep Sardanyés, Victor Maull, Nuria Conde-Pueyo, Ricard Solé
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385385
Blai Vidiella
1ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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  • ORCID record for Blai Vidiella
Antoni Guillamon
3Departament de Matemàtiques, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
4Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath). Edifici C, Campus de Bellaterra, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
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Josep Sardanyés
5Centre de Recerca Matemàtica. Edifici C, Campus de Bellaterra, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
4Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath). Edifici C, Campus de Bellaterra, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
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Victor Maull
1ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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Nuria Conde-Pueyo
1ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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  • For correspondence: nuria.conde@upf.edu
Ricard Solé
1ICREA-Complex Systems Lab, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
2Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain
6Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe NM 87501, USA
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  • For correspondence: ricard.sole@upf.edu
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Abstract

Complex dynamical fluctuations, from molecular noise within cells, collective intelligence, brain dynamics or computer traffic have been shown to display noisy behaviour consistent with a critical state between order and disorder. Living close to the critical point can have a number of adaptive advantages and it has been conjectured that evolution could select (and even tend to) these critical states. One way of approaching such state is by means of so called self-organized criticality (SOC) where the system poises itself close to the critical point. Is this the case of living cells? It is difficult to test this idea given the enormous dimensionality associated with gene and metabolic webs. In this paper we present an alternative approach: to engineer synthetic gene networks displaying SOC behaviour. This is achieved by exploiting the presence of a saturation (congestion) phenomenon of the ClpXP protein degradation machinery in E. coli cells. Using a feedback design that detects and then reduces ClpXP congestion, a critical motif is built from a two-gene network system, where SOC can be successfully implemented. Both deterministic and stochastic models are used, consistently supporting the presence of criticality in intracellular traffic. The potential implications for both cellular dynamics and designed intracellular noise are discussed.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted November 17, 2020.
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Engineering self-organized criticality in living cells
Blai Vidiella, Antoni Guillamon, Josep Sardanyés, Victor Maull, Nuria Conde-Pueyo, Ricard Solé
bioRxiv 2020.11.16.385385; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385385
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Engineering self-organized criticality in living cells
Blai Vidiella, Antoni Guillamon, Josep Sardanyés, Victor Maull, Nuria Conde-Pueyo, Ricard Solé
bioRxiv 2020.11.16.385385; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.16.385385

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