ArticleCurrent biology : CB2019
Coupled Active Systems Encode an Emergent Hunting Behavior in the Unicellular Predator Lacrymaria olor.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
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25 citing papers in PubMed, 55 citations in OpenAlex.
- An adaptable, self-organizing, single-cell morphology circuit optimizes suctorian predatory trap structure.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Embodied behavioural complexity in a ciliated microorganism.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Study of Unconventional Cytoskeleton Components Regulating Actin Contraction.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Decoding ultrasensitive self-assembly of the calcium-regulated Tetrahymena cytoskeletal protein Tcb2 using optical actuation.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2025Article
- A self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit optimizesbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Synthetic Forms Most Beautiful: Engineering Insights into Self-Organization.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Review
- Decoding ultrasensitive self-assembly of the calcium-regulatedbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Genomic insights into the cellular specialization of predation in raptorial protists.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Single-cell transcriptomic analysis reveals genome evolution in predatory litostomatean ciliates.European journal of protistology · 2024Article
- Cell motility: Bioelectrical control of behavior without neurons.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- A programmable reaction-diffusion system for spatiotemporal cell signaling circuit design.Cell · 2024Article
- Perspectives on Principles of Cellular Behavior from the Biophysics of Protists.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Regulatable assembly of synthetic microtubule architectures using engineered MAP-IDR condensates.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Active oscillations in microscale navigation.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- What is it like to be a choanoflagellate? Sensation, processing and behavior in the closest unicellular relatives of animals.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Comparative profiling of cellular gait on adhesive micropatterns defines statistical patterns of activity that underlie native and cancerous cell dynamics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Emergent programmable behavior and chaos in dynamically driven active filaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- A unified model for the dynamics of ATP-independent ultrafast contraction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Article
- Islet primary cilia motility controls insulin secretion.Science advances · 2022Article
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5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
Many single-celled protists use rapid morphology changes to perform fast animal-like behaviors. To understand how such behaviors are encoded, we analyzed the hunting dynamics of the predatory ciliate Lacrymaria olor, which locates and captures prey using the tip of a slender "neck" that can rapidly extend more than seven times its body length (500 μm from its body) and retract in seconds. By tracking single cells in real-time over hours and analyzing millions of sub-cellular postures, we find that these fast extension-contraction cycles underlie an emergent hunting behavior that comprehensively samples a broad area within the cell's reach. Although this behavior appears complex, we show that it arises naturally as alternating sub-cellular ciliary and contractile activities rearrange the cell's underlying helical cytoskeleton to extend or retract the neck. At short timescales, a retracting neck behaves like an elastic filament under load, such that compression activates a series of buckling modes that reorient the head and scramble its extensile trajectory. At longer timescales, the fundamental length of this filament can change, altering the location in space where these transitions occur. Coupling these fast and slow dynamics together, we present a simple model for how Lacrymaria samples the range of geometries and orientations needed to ensure dense stochastic sampling of the immediate environment when hunting to locate and strike at prey. More generally, coupling active mechanical and chemical signaling systems across different timescales may provide a general strategy by which mechanically encoded emergent cell behaviors can be understood or engineered.
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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.