Abstract
Cells in tissues or biofilms communicate with one another through chemical and mechanical signals to coordinate collective behaviors. Non-living cell mimics provide simplified models of natural systems; however, it has remained challenging to implement communication capabilities comparable to living cells. Here we present a porous artificial cell-mimic containing a nucleus-like DNA-hydrogel compartment that is able to express and display proteins, and communicate with neighboring cell-mimics through diffusive protein signals. We show that communication between cell-mimics allows distribution of tasks, quorum sensing, and cellular differentiation according to local environment. Cell-mimics can be manufactured in large quantities, easily stored, chemically modified, and spatially organized into diffusively connected tissue-like arrangements, offering a means for studying communication in large ensembles of artificial cells.
Highlights
Cells in tissues or biofilms communicate with one another through chemical and mechanical signals to coordinate collective behaviors
We describe the microfluidic production of cell-mimics with a porous polymer membrane containing an artificial hydrogel compartment, which resembles a eukaryotic cell’s nucleus in that it contains the cell-mimics’ genetic material for protein synthesis and can sequester transcription factors
Our study demonstrates that clay minerals and clay-DNA hydrogels are useful hybrid materials for synthetic biology and the assembly of artificial cell-mimics
Summary
Cells in tissues or biofilms communicate with one another through chemical and mechanical signals to coordinate collective behaviors. We present a porous artificial cell-mimic containing a nucleus-like DNA-hydrogel compartment that is able to express and display proteins, and communicate with neighboring cell-mimics through diffusive protein signals. Constructed cell-mimics, as non-living, biochemically simplified and engineerable systems, could serve as models to study mechanisms of pattern formation and collective responses, and lead to the development of novel sensors and self-organizing materials. We aim to expand the communication capabilities of artificial cells by developing a cellular mimic that produces and releases diffusive protein signals that travel in and get interpreted by large populations of cell-mimics. Cell-mimics are able to communicate through diffusive protein signals, activate gene expression in neighboring cell-mimics, and display collective responses to cell-mimic density similar to bacterial quorum sensing
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