Scientists from the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at TU Delft, there for the first time succeeded for individual E. coli bacteria, an inhabitant of our human intestines with the shape of a stick of 3 micrometers in length, to grow in very different forms: squares, triangles, circles, and even in the form of the letters of ‘TU Delft .
They also bred super-E.coli ‘who were thirty times greater than normal. With this wonderful, but sprightly bacteria they could examine the internal distribution of proteins and DNA in a whole new way.
In the journal Nature Nanotechnology this week publish the scientists how this self-designed bacteria still perfect in condition may be to determine where their own midst, crucial for cell division and multiplication. The proteins that cells use for this scan cell shape, according to a mathematical principle that the famous computer pioneer Alan Turing discovered in 1953.
Cell division
“Biologically life would not be possible if cells are not be able to divide in the right way. Cells must divide their cell volume and genetic material over their daughter cells to multiply effectively, “said prof. Cees Dekker. “It’s fascinating that a single-celled organism knows exactly where he has to share himself. We know that the distribution of certain proteins within the cell before the key, but the big question was how those proteins are so able to distribute? “
Alan Turing
The Delft scientists show that the key is a process that had already been discovered by the famous mathematician Alan Turing in 1953. He is best known for his role in the deciphering of the famous Enigma cipher and the ‘Turing Test’, but his impact on the biology is just as spectacular.
His “reaction-diffusion mechanism ‘predicts how patterns emerge in space and time, due to the interaction of only two molecules. This explains, among other things how to get a zebra stripes, and how an embryo develops hand five fingers.
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