ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2017
Synchrony and pattern formation of coupled genetic oscillators on a chip of artificial cells.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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40 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gene-driven self-morphing microtubule-based active matter.Nature materials · 2026Article
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- Oscillatory dynamics in paclitaxel-proteinoid networks.Discover molecules · 2026Article
- Delay-facilitated self-assembly in compartmentalized systems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Synthetic cells by the numbers.iScience · 2025Review
- Bacterial chromosome conformation and cell-free gene expression in synthetic 2D compartments.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Cell-Free Gene Expression: Methods and Applications.Chemical reviews · 2025Review
- Review
- Regulatory Components for Bacterial Cell-Free Systems Engineering.ACS synthetic biology · 2024Review
- Large-scale-integration and collective oscillations of 2D artificial cells.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Cell-Free Gene Expression in Bioprinted Fluidic Networks.ACS synthetic biology · 2024Article
- PHEIGES: all-cell-free phage synthesis and selection from engineered genomes.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A genetic circuit on a single DNA molecule as an autonomous dissipative nanodevice.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Toward Memory in a DNA Brush: Site-Specific Recombination Responsive to Polymer Density, Orientation, and Conformation.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2023Article
- Building programmable multicompartment artificial cells incorporating remotely activated protein channels using microfluidics and acoustic levitation.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Complex dynamics in a synchronized cell-free genetic clock.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Cell-Free Gene Expression from DNA Brushes.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Towards a physical understanding of developmental patterning.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2021Review
- Engineering spatiotemporal organization and dynamics in synthetic cells.Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology · 2021Review
- Boundary-Free Ribosome Compartmentalization by Gene Expression on a Surface.ACS synthetic biology · 2021Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Understanding how biochemical networks lead to large-scale nonequilibrium self-organization and pattern formation in life is a major challenge, with important implications for the design of programmable synthetic systems. Here, we assembled cell-free genetic oscillators in a spatially distributed system of on-chip DNA compartments as artificial cells, and measured reaction-diffusion dynamics at the single-cell level up to the multicell scale. Using a cell-free gene network we programmed molecular interactions that control the frequency of oscillations, population variability, and dynamical stability. We observed frequency entrainment, synchronized oscillatory reactions and pattern formation in space, as manifestation of collective behavior. The transition to synchrony occurs as the local coupling between compartments strengthens. Spatiotemporal oscillations are induced either by a concentration gradient of a diffusible signal, or by spontaneous symmetry breaking close to a transition from oscillatory to nonoscillatory dynamics. This work offers design principles for programmable biochemical reactions with potential applications to autonomous sensing, distributed computing, and biomedical diagnostics.
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