The
Stupidly Effective Genius of Nature
- Researchers discover how nature enables cells to
act intelligently
May 12th, 2015
Researchers
at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have discovered a Lévy walk pattern of
movement when living cells eat. When the food is transported within the cell by
so-called endosomal active transport, it is the same mathematical pattern of
movement that many animals follow when foraging for food.
A
Lévy walk or flight, named after a French mathematician Paul Lévy, is a mix of
long trajectories and short random movements. Numerous short movements are made
within a small area, and occasionally a long stride to a distant area, where
the action is repeated. This particular motion pattern is observed in humans
and animals.
While
scientists had previously studied the pattern in humans and animals of inherent
intelligence, this research is the first to identify this pattern of movement
in molecular motors.
Steve
Granick, Director of the IBS Center for Soft and Living Matter and one of the
authors of the research, explained why it’s so interesting and important. “We
didn’t want to repeat what other people did in the past. People knew that
jellyfish, sharks, birds, and people can execute this important process (Lévy
walk). We discovered that even molecules without a brain can do the same thing.
And we discovered the secret of how it’s accomplished.”
Molecular
motors are responsible for the intracellular transport of many cargoes. The
researchers observed how these motors carry cargo (endosome) as they move along
microtubules, an intracellular highway network.
The
rule they discovered is this. When molecular motors carry cargo, their purpose
is to find a destination. They thoroughly explore their immediate environment.
If a destination is not found, they travel further, repeating the action until
a destination is found. “Nature is more clever than we are. It finds this
efficient way to engineer this marvelous result without being smart, without
(using any pre-existing) memory, and it saves them energy” added Director
Granick.
“The findings of our study may help us to better
understand our cells and how our body is engineered” he went on. “At the IBS
Center for Soft and Living Matter in Korea, the rule we discovered holds
promise to engineer new kinds of artificial active materials.”
The
research was supported in part by the Institute for Basic Science (South Korea)
and the US Department of Energy in collaboration with the University of
Illinois. It was published online, in the prestigious journal, Nature Materials
(Impact Factor of 36.4) March 30, 2015.
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Notes for editors
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References
*
Title of Paper: Memoryless self-reinforcing directionality in endosomal active
transport within living cells. DOI: 10.1038/NMAT4239
*
Authors: Kejia Chen1, BoWang2,3*† and Steve Granick1,2,4,5,6*
*
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular
Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. 2Department
of Materials Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. 3Institute
for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. 4Department
of Chemistry, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. 5Department
of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA. 6IBS
Center for Soft and Living Matter,UNIST, Ulsan 689-798, South Korea. †Present
address: Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford,
California 94305, USA. *e-mail: wangbo@stanford.edu; sgranick@ibs.re.kr
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For further information or to request
media assistance, please contact: Mr. Shi Bo Shim, Head of Department of
Communications, Institute for Basic Science (+82-42-878-8189; sibo@ibs.re.kr)
or Ms. Sunny Kim, Department of Communications, Institute for Basic Science
(+82-42-878-8135; Sunnykim@ibs.re.kr)
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About Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
The IBS was founded in 2011 by the government of the Republic of Korea. With
the sole purpose of driving forward the development of basic science in Korea,
IBS will be comprised of a total of 50 research centers in all fields of basic
science, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, life science, earth science
and interdisciplinary science. IBS has launched 24 research centers as of
January 2015. There are one mathematics, eight physics, six chemistry, seven
life science, and two interdisciplinary research centers.
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