The cellular Ising model: a framework for phase transitions in multicellular environments.
Inspired by the Ising model, we introduce a gene regulatory network that induces a phase transition that coordinates robustly the behaviour of cell ensembles. The building blocks of the design are the so-called toggle switch interfaced with two quorum sensing modules, Las and Lux. We show that as a function of the transport rate of signalling molecules across the cell membrane the population undergoes a spontaneous symmetry breaking from cells individually switching their phenotypes to a global collective phenotypic organization. By characterizing the critical behaviour, we reveal some properties, such as phenotypic memory and hypersensitivity, with relevance in the field of synthetic biology. We argue that our results can be extrapolated to other multicellular systems and be a generic framework for collective decision-making processes.
Parc Científic de Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Marc
M
Weber
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering Program, Lehigh University, 111 Research Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA jab614@lehigh.edu.
Javier
J
Buceta
D008954:Models, Biological; D053038:Quorum Sensing
biological stochasticity; multicellular environments; phase transition; quorum sensing