ArticleCell systems2020
Encoding Membrane-Potential-Based Memory within a Microbial Community.
Article in Cell systems, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 146 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part Two.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Mind Everywhere: A Framework for Conceptualizing Goal-Directedness in Biology and Other Domains-Part One.Biological theory · 2026Article
- Illuminating the dark majority: photobiology of nonphotosynthetic bacteria.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2025Review
- An in vitro neurobacterial interface reveals direct modulation of neuronal function by gut bacteria.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Identification of prochlorperazine dimaleate as a Sortase A inhibitor from FDA libraries for MRSA infection treatment.RSC advances · 2025Article
- Physical communication pathways in bacteria: an extra layer to quorum sensing.Biophysical reviews · 2025Review
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- Bioelectronic Delivery of Potassium Ions Controls Membrane Voltage and Growth Dynamics in Bacteria Biofilms.Biomedical materials & devices (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- On the prospects of basal cognition research becoming fully evolutionary: promising avenues and cautionary notes.History and philosophy of the life sciences · 2025Article
- Persistent glucose consumption under antibiotic treatment protects bacterial community.Nature chemical biology · 2025Article
- Bioelectricity is a universal multifaced signaling cue in living organisms.Molecular biology of the cell · 2025Review
- Open problems in synthetic multicellularity.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2024Article
- Bioelectronic Drug-free Control of Opportunistic Pathogens through Selective Excitability.Device · 2024Article
- The Role of Cells in Encoding and Storing Information: A Narrative Review of Cellular Memory.Cureus · 2024Review
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- Chemiosmotic nutrient transport in synthetic cells powered by electrogenic antiport coupled to decarboxylation.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Collective intelligence: A unifying concept for integrating biology across scales and substrates.Communications biology · 2024Review
- Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy with Bacterial Biofilms: Neuronal-like Behavior.Nano letters · 2024Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Cellular membrane potential plays a key role in the formation and retrieval of memories in the metazoan brain, but it remains unclear whether such memory can also be encoded in simpler organisms like bacteria. Here, we show that single-cell-level memory patterns can be imprinted in bacterial biofilms by light-induced changes in the membrane potential. We demonstrate that transient optical perturbations generate a persistent and robust potassium-channel-mediated change in the membrane potential of bacteria within the biofilm. The light-exposed cells respond in an anti-phase manner, relative to unexposed cells, to both natural and induced oscillations in extracellular ion concentrations. This anti-phase response, which persists for hours following the transient optical stimulus, enables a direct single-cell resolution visualization of spatial memory patterns within the biofilm. The ability to encode robust and persistent membrane-potential-based memory patterns could enable computations within prokaryotic communities and suggests a parallel between neurons and bacteria.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.