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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.

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Tensegrity II. How structural networks influence cellular information processing networks

Donald E. Ingber
JCS 2003 116: 1397-1408. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in JCS Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?