Ethology of amoeba viewed from nonlinear dynamics
Toshiyuki NAKAGAKI
Hokkaido University, Japan
We report here that ability of information processing in an amoeboid organism is higher than we had thought. The model organism is the plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum (true slime mold), which is a large aggregate of protoplasm with a large number of nuclei. The organism found the optimal path when it obtained the multiple locations of food. A simple mathematical model for the path finding was proposed in terms of differential equations. As well as the path-finding ability, the organism was able to anticipate the next timing of periodic climate change after experienced some periodic changes of climate, and to show a kind of behaviors that seemed to be ' indicisive ' when it encountered the presence of a chemical repellent, quinine. We indicated that a simple dynamics was enough to reproduce these observed behaviors. Mathematical modeling is helpful to understand the mechanism of behavioral smartness in slime mold.
References:
A. Tero, S. Takagi, T. Saigusa, K. Ito, D. P. Bebber, M. D. Fricker, K. Yumiki, R. Kobayashi and T. Nakagaki : "Rules for biologically-inspired adaptive network design", Science, 327 : 439-442 (2010)
Dennis Bray : Wetware : A computer in every living cell-, Yale University Press (2009)
T. Saigusa, A. Tero, T. Nakagaki and K. Yoshiki : "Aomoebae anticipate periodic events", Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, 018101 (2008)
T. Nakagaki, M. Iima, T. Ueda, Y. Nishiura, T. Saigusa, A. Tero, R. Kobayashi and K. Showalter : "Minimum-risk path finding by an adaptive amoebal network", Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, 068104 (2007)
Kenji Matsumoto, Seiji Takagi and Toshiyuki Nakagaki : "Locomotive Mechanism of Physarum Plasmodia based on Spatiotemporal Analysis of Protoplasmic Streaming", Biophysical Journal, Vol. 94, 2492-2504 (2008)
T. Nakagaki & R. Guy: "Intelligent behaviors of amoeboid movement based on complex dynamics of soft matter", Soft Matter, Vol. 4, 57-67 (2008)
T. Nakagaki, A. Tero, R. Kobayashi, I. Onishi, and T. Miyaji : Computational ability of cells based on cell dynamics and adaptability, New Generation Computing Vol. 27, 57-81 (2009)
IMAGES
Ecoulement en micro-canal (plus de détails...)
CONFÉRENCES
Auto-organisation en physique et en biologie, morphogenèse, ondes-particules, turbulence, physique non linéaire, Colloque International en mémoire d’Yves Couder à l'ENS et UPCité, 4 Juin 2024
Bifurcations and Instabilities in Fluid Dynamics, Edinburgh, Scotland, 24 Juin 2024
Physics of Wave Turbulence and beyond: Celebrating the 60th birthday of Sergey Nazarenko., Les Houches, 2 Septembre 2024