Cell-autonomous diversification in bacteria arises from calcium dynamics self-organizing at a critical point.

ABSTRACT: How dynamic bacterial calcium is regulated, with kinetics faster than typical mechanisms of cellular adaptation, is unknown. We discover bacterial calcium fluctuations are temporal-fractals resulting from a property known as self-organized criticality (SOC). SOC processes are poised at a phase transition separating ordered and chaotic dynamical regimes and are observed in many natural and anthropogenic systems. SOC in bacterial calcium emerges due to calcium channel coupling mediated via membrane voltage. Environmental or genetic perturbations modify calcium dynamics and the critical exponent suggesting a continuum of critical attractors. Moving along this continuum alters the collective information capacity of bacterial populations. We find that the stochastic transition from motile to se

SUBMITTER: Meyer CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10403213 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature