Minimal model of a cell connecting amoebic motion and adaptive transport networks.
A cell is a minimal self-sustaining system that can move and compute. Previous work has shown that a unicellular slime mold, Physarum, can be utilized as a biological computer based on cytoplasmic flow encapsulated by a membrane. Although the interplay between the modification of the boundary of a cell and the cytoplasmic flow surrounded by the boundary plays a key role in Physarum computing, no model of a cell has been developed to describe this interplay. Here we propose a toy model of a cell that shows amoebic motion and can solve a maze, Steiner minimum tree problem and a spanning tree problem. Only by assuming that cytoplasm is hardened after passing external matter (or softened part) through a cell, the shape of the cell and the cytoplasmic flow can be changed. Without cytoplasm hardening, a cell is easily destroyed. This suggests that cytoplasmic hardening and/or sol-gel transformation caused by external perturbation can keep a cell in a critical state leading to a wide variety of shapes and motion.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kobe University, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. sprd4z89@marble.ocn.ne.jp
Yukio-Pegio
YP
Gunji
Tomohiro
T
Shirakawa
Takayuki
T
Niizato
Taichi
T
Haruna
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000465:Algorithms; D000656:Amoeba / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003491:Cybernetics; D003595:Cytoplasmic Streaming / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving