Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34417290›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021

Topological braiding and virtual particles on the cell membrane.

Jinghui Liu, Jan F Totz, Pearson W Miller, Alasdair D Hastewell, Yu-Chen Chao, Jörn Dunkel, Nikta Fakhri

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 18% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Three-dimensional chiral morphodynamics of chemomechanical active shells.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Jinghui LiuDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0003-2770-8415
Jan F TotzDepartment of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0003-4961-1630
Pearson W MillerCenter for Computational Biology, Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation, New York, NY 10010.
Alasdair D HastewellDepartment of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0003-2633-380X
Yu-Chen ChaoDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.ORCID 0000-0002-7625-6411
Jörn DunkelDepartment of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; dunkel@mit.edu fakhri@mit.edu.ORCID 0000-0001-8865-2369
Nikta FakhriDepartment of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; dunkel@mit.edu fakhri@mit.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-1261-7465
Massachusetts Institute of Technology · USHarvard University · USSimons Foundation · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Braiding of topological structures in complex matter fields provides a robust framework for encoding and processing information, and it has been extensively studied in the context of topological quantum computation. In living systems, topological defects are crucial for the localization and organization of biochemical signaling waves, but their braiding dynamics remain unexplored. Here, we show that the spiral wave cores, which organize the Rho-GTP protein signaling dynamics and force generation on the membrane of starfish egg cells, undergo spontaneous braiding dynamics. Experimentally measured world line braiding exponents and topological entropy correlate with cellular activity and agree with predictions from a generic field theory. Our analysis further reveals the creation and annihilation of virtual quasi-particle excitations during defect scattering events, suggesting phenomenological parallels between quantum and living matter.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsQuantum TheoryAnimalsCell MembraneOocytesrho GTP-Binding ProteinsStarfishrho GTP-Binding Proteinsbiochemical signaling wavesbraidinginformation transporttopological defectsvirtual particles

Identifiers

PMID34417290
PMCPMC8403925
OpenAlexW3194715768

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.