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Molecular communication through stochastic synchronization induced by extracellular fluctuations.
Tianshou Zhou1, Luonan Chen, Kazuyuki Aihara
1School of Mathematics and Computational Sciences, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, China. tszhou@msn.com
Physical Review Letters
|December 31, 2005
Summary
Cellular communication in microbes is disrupted by internal noise but synchronized by shared external noise. This external noise enhances signaling molecule exchange, leading to collective cell behavior.
Area of Science:
- Systems biology
- Synthetic biology
- Microbial systems
Background:
- Cell-cell communication is crucial for multicellular systems.
- Intracellular noise can disrupt coordinated cellular behavior.
- Understanding noise effects is key to controlling microbial communities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To model a synthetic gene network in microbes.
- To investigate how intracellular and extracellular noise impact cell-cell communication.
- To explore noise-induced synchronization in multicellular systems.
Main Methods:
- Development of a biologically plausible model for cellular communication.
- Simulation of a well-mixed multicellular system with a synthetic gene regulatory network.
- Analysis of the effects of independent intracellular noise versus common extracellular noise.
Main Results:
- Independent intracellular noises lead to irregular behavior in individual cells, despite interactions.
- Common extracellular noises can induce collective dynamics.
- Extracellular noise actively enhances signaling molecule interchange, leading to stochastic synchronization.
Conclusions:
- Extracellular noise, unlike intracellular noise, can be a unifying factor in microbial multicellular systems.
- Noise can be harnessed to achieve coordinated behavior and enhance communication in synthetic microbial consortia.
- The study provides insights into noise-driven emergent properties in biological systems.