Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling
Bacteria are easily characterizable model organisms with an impressively complicated set of abilities. Among them is quorum sensing, a cell-cell signaling system that may have a common evolutionary origin with eukaryotic cell-cell signaling. The two systems are behaviorally similar, but quorum sensi...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers Research Foundation
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122907 |
| _version_ | 1826204566710910976 |
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| author | Ram, Archana Lo, Andrew W |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Ram, Archana Lo, Andrew W |
| author_sort | Ram, Archana |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Bacteria are easily characterizable model organisms with an impressively complicated set of abilities. Among them is quorum sensing, a cell-cell signaling system that may have a common evolutionary origin with eukaryotic cell-cell signaling. The two systems are behaviorally similar, but quorum sensing in bacteria is more easily studied in depth than cell-cell signaling in eukaryotes. Because of this comparative ease of study, bacterial dynamics are also more suited to direct interpretation than eukaryotic dynamics, e.g., those of the neuron. Here we reviewliterature on neuron-like qualities of bacterial colonies and biofilms, including ion-based and hormonal signaling, and a phenomenon similar to the graded action potential. This suggests that bacteria could be used to help create more accurate and detailed biological models in neuroscientific research. More speculatively, bacterial systems may be considered an analog for neurons in biologically based computational research, allowing models to better harness the tremendous ability of biological organisms to process information and make decisions. Keywords: quorum sensing; neural networks (computer),Bacillus subtilis; cell-cell communication; networkmodels |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:57:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/122907 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:57:12Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | Frontiers Research Foundation |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1229072022-10-01T12:07:27Z Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling Ram, Archana Lo, Andrew W Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Sloan School of Management Sloan School of Management. Laboratory for Financial Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Bacteria are easily characterizable model organisms with an impressively complicated set of abilities. Among them is quorum sensing, a cell-cell signaling system that may have a common evolutionary origin with eukaryotic cell-cell signaling. The two systems are behaviorally similar, but quorum sensing in bacteria is more easily studied in depth than cell-cell signaling in eukaryotes. Because of this comparative ease of study, bacterial dynamics are also more suited to direct interpretation than eukaryotic dynamics, e.g., those of the neuron. Here we reviewliterature on neuron-like qualities of bacterial colonies and biofilms, including ion-based and hormonal signaling, and a phenomenon similar to the graded action potential. This suggests that bacteria could be used to help create more accurate and detailed biological models in neuroscientific research. More speculatively, bacterial systems may be considered an analog for neurons in biologically based computational research, allowing models to better harness the tremendous ability of biological organisms to process information and make decisions. Keywords: quorum sensing; neural networks (computer),Bacillus subtilis; cell-cell communication; networkmodels 2019-11-12T18:12:52Z 2019-11-12T18:12:52Z 2018-02-23 2017-09-29 2019-02-22T17:08:25Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1662-5188 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122907 Ram, Archana, and Andrew W. Lo. “Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling.” Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 12, 7 (February 23, 2018): © 2018 Ram and Lo http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2018.00007 Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Frontiers Research Foundation Frontiers |
| spellingShingle | Ram, Archana Lo, Andrew W Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title | Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title_full | Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title_fullStr | Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title_short | Is Smaller Better? A Proposal to Use Bacteria For Neuroscientific Modeling |
| title_sort | is smaller better a proposal to use bacteria for neuroscientific modeling |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122907 |
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