Minimal model of a cell connecting amoebic motion and adaptive transport networks |
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Authors: | Gunji Yukio-Pegio Shirakawa Tomohiro Niizato Takayuki Haruna Taichi |
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Institution: | a Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kobe University, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan b Department of Computational Intelligence and Systems Science, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagatsuta, Midori, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan |
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Abstract: | 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. |
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Keywords: | Physarum Natural computing Cell model Amoebic motion Adaptive network |
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