title: A Synthetic Multicellular Memory Device.
abstract: Changing environments pose a challenge to living organisms. Cells need to gather and process incoming information, adapting to changes in predictable ways. This requires in particular the presence of memory, which allows different internal states to be stored. Biological memory can be stored by switches that retain information on past and present events. Synthetic biologists have implemented a number of memory devices for biological applications, mostly in single cells. It has been shown that the use of multicellular consortia provides interesting advantages to implement biological circuits. Here we show how to build a synthetic biological memory switch using an eukaryotic consortium. We engineered yeast cells that can communicate and retain memory of changes in the extracellular environment. These cells were able to produce and secrete a pheromone and sense a different pheromone following NOT logic. When the two strains were cocultured, they behaved as a double-negative-feedback motif with memory. In addition, we showed that memory can be effectively changed by the use of external inputs. Further optimization of these modules and addition of other cells could lead to new multicellular circuits that exhibit memory over a broad range of biological inputs.
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Urrios
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Macia
authors.forename: Romilde
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Manzoni
authors.forename: Núria
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Conde
authors.affiliation: Centre per a la Innovació de la Diabetis Infantil Sant Joan de Déu (CIDI) , E-08950 Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Adriano
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bonforti
authors.forename: Eulàlia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Nadal
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Posas
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute , Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, United States.
authors.forename: Ricard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Solé
mesh_terms: D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D004864:Equipment and Supplies; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015003:Yeasts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010675:Pheromones
keywords: biological computation; logic circuits; memory devices; multicellular consortia; synthetic biology