ArticleCurrent biology : CB2022
A unicellular walker controlled by a microtubule-based finite-state machine.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 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.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- An adaptable, self-organizing, single-cell morphology circuit optimizes suctorian predatory trap structure.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Neuronal Microtubules and Radiofrequency Waves: The Quantum Core of Human Consciousness, Memory, and Pathway to Memory Enhancement/Recovery.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Environmental Filtering Drives Microbial Community Shifts and Functional Niche Differentiation of Fungi in Waterlogged and Dried Archeological Bamboo Slips.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A self-organizing single-cell morphology circuit optimizesbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Dynamics and emergence of metachronal waves in the ciliary band of a metazoan larva.Science advances · 2025Article
- Synthetic Forms Most Beautiful: Engineering Insights into Self-Organization.Physiology (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Review
- Cell motility: Bioelectrical control of behavior without neurons.Current biology : CB · 2024Article
- Perspectives on Principles of Cellular Behavior from the Biophysics of Protists.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Methods and Measures for Investigating Microscale Motility.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Openly available illustrations as tools to describe eukaryotic microbial diversity.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- What is it like to be a choanoflagellate? Sensation, processing and behavior in the closest unicellular relatives of animals.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- Active oscillations in microscale navigation.Animal cognition · 2023Review
- The evolution and diversity of actin-dependent cell migration.Molecular biology of the cell · 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
- Mitochondrial networks through the lens of mathematics.Physical biology · 2023Review
- Emergent programmable behavior and chaos in dynamically driven active filaments.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Embodied cognitive morphogenesis as a route to intelligent systems.Interface focus · 2023Article
- There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-Scale Machines.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cells are complex biochemical systems whose behaviors emerge from interactions among myriad molecular components. Computation is often invoked as a general framework for navigating this cellular complexity. However, it is unclear how cells might embody computational processes such that the theories of computation, including finite-state machine models, could be productively applied. Here, we demonstrate finite-state-machine-like processing embodied in cells using the walking behavior of Euplotes eurystomus, a ciliate that walks across surfaces using fourteen motile appendages (cirri). We found that cellular walking entails regulated transitions among a discrete set of gait states. The set of observed transitions decomposes into a small group of high-probability, temporally irreversible transitions and a large group of low-probability, time-symmetric transitions, thus revealing stereotypy in the sequential patterns of state transitions. Simulations and experiments suggest that the sequential logic of the gait is functionally important. Taken together, these findings implicate a finite-state-machine-like process. Cirri are connected by microtubule bundles (fibers), and we found that the dynamics of cirri involved in different state transitions are associated with the structure of the fiber system. Perturbative experiments revealed that the fibers mediate gait coordination, suggesting a mechanical basis of gait control.
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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.