ReviewMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR2005
Molecules into cells: specifying spatial architecture.
Review in Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed.
- Revolutionizing the understanding of acupoint biology and acupuncture mechanisms through spatial omics: current perspectives and future directions.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Advances and Applications of Spatial Proteomics: From Organellar Maps to Clinical Translation.Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology · 2026Review
- The importance of spatial structure in biology.European journal for philosophy of science · 2026Article
- Article
- Microfluidic Production of Spatially Structured Biomimetic Microgels as Compartmentalized Artificial Cells.Small science · 2025Article
- Physical Forces in Regeneration of Cells and Tissues.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2025Review
- Nrf1 acts as a highly-conserved determinon for maintaining robust redox homeostasis in the eco-evo-devo process of life histories.Cell stress · 2025Review
- Bone Spheroid Development Under Flow Conditions with Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells in a 3D Porous Hydrogel Supplemented with Hydroxyapatite.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Conserved physical mechanisms of cell and tissue elongation.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2024Review
- The protometabolic nature of prebiotic chemistry.Chemical Society reviews · 2023Review
- Exploring Single-Cell Exposomics by Mass Spectrometry.Environmental science & technology · 2023Review
- Article
- Article
- Determining protein polarization proteome-wide using physical dissection of individual Stentor coeruleus cells.Current biology : CB · 2022Article
- Progressive Local Accumulation of Self-Assembled Nanoreactors in a Hydrogel Matrix through Repetitive Injections of ATP.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2022Article
- HiDeF: identifying persistent structures in multiscale 'omics data.Genome biology · 2021Article
- Regeneration inFrontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021Review
- Coordinating cell polarization and morphogenesis through mechanical feedback.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- Identifying persistent structures in multiscale 'omics data.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2020Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A living cell is not an aggregate of molecules but an organized pattern, structured in space and in time. This article addresses some conceptual issues in the genesis of spatial architecture, including how molecules find their proper location in cell space, the origins of supramolecular order, the role of the genes, cell morphology, the continuity of cells, and the inheritance of order. The discussion is framed around a hierarchy of physiological processes that bridge the gap between nanometer-sized molecules and cells three to six orders of magnitude larger. Stepping stones include molecular self-organization, directional physiology, spatial markers, gradients, fields, and physical forces. The knowledge at hand leads to an unconventional interpretation of biological order. I have come to think of cells as self-organized systems composed of genetically specified elements plus heritable structures. The smallest self that can be fairly said to organize itself is the whole cell. If structure, form, and function are ever to be computed from data at a lower level, the starting point will be not the genome, but a spatially organized system of molecules. This conclusion invites us to reconsider our understanding of what genes do, what organisms are, and how living systems could have arisen on the early Earth.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.