Journal of Cell Science 116, e801-e801 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 The Company of Biologists Limited
Networks: from structure to information processing
Cellular tensegrity is a model for cell architecture in which
microfilaments and intermediate filaments bear tensional forces and these are
balanced by elements that resist compression, such as microtubules and matrix
adhesions. In part II of a two-part Commentary on the subject, Donald Ingber
discusses how tensegrity architecture might provide a basis for biocomplexity
by allowing cells to integrate chemical and physical signals into a network
from which complex behaviours can emerge (see
p. 1397). Several studies
indicate that mechanical stress applied to integrins at the cell surface can
induce cytoskeletal reorganization, signal transduction and gene expression.
Moreover, at the whole cell level, cell shape distortion is able to switch
cells between gene programmes that lead to distinct cell fates – growth,
differentiation or apoptosis – and alterations in cytoskeletal
pre-stress (a critical parameter in cellular tensegrity) have been shown to
influence tissue patterning. Ingber suggests that tensegrity thus represents
the hardware behind living systems, the signalling machinery being the
software. In the context of this dynamic information-processing network, he
proposes that cell fates can be viewed as `attractors' – stable states
whose formation is an emergent property of the network.
Related articles in JCS:
- Tensegrity II. How structural networks influence cellular information processing networks
- Donald E. Ingber
JCS 2003 116: 1397-1408.
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