How brain-without bacteria and cancer cells can get out of a tortuous and complex maze

maze of experiments on bacteria and cancer cells by scientists is of great value to biomedical science and provides a new research window into the early stages of embryonic development in mammals and the metastasis of cancer cells.
you've only heard of scientists training mice to walk mazes, but did you know that cells and bacteria also walk mazes? Scientists at Cancer Research UK and the University of Glasgow have created a mock version of the Hampden Maze to put bacteria and cancer cells in to see if they can get out of the maze.
scientists choose these two life units for maze experiments? How did they get out of the maze? What does this finding mean for humans? Science and Technology Daily reporter interviewed the relevant experts, asked him to talk about the mystery.
why choose them to walk the maze? Neither of the "players" is idle and moves
"Dictyostelium discoideum", the name "You don't know it, it doesn't know you" is translated into a pan-based mesh handle.
so many microbes, why do scientists at Cancer Research UK and the University of Glasgow think the bacteria can walk through the maze and give it a chance?
"plate-based mesh handle bacteria can form a 'body', that is, their own 'ticks' up, so that the clumps become multicellular. Zhu Baoli
researcher at the China Institute of Microbiology, told Science and Technology Daily that after becoming a multicellular body, there is still a ability to collaborate between their single cells. Can hold the group can also do things in groups, the characteristics of the plate-based mesh bacteria to scientists a difficult question: whether it is multicellular or single-celled?
because of this typical characteristic, the National Institutes of Health listed the plate-based mesh as a pattern between single and multicellular organisms about 2000. Biologists use them exclusively for scientific research to reveal a universally regular phenomenon of life. So many scientists have done research on it, and Zhu Baoli has studied it.
", it can migrate over long, long distances, but it moves less obviously and is less dynamic. 'It has to rely on a surface to move, ' Mr. Zhu said. If you make a flat culture base, you can visually observe that they are "displacement". The bacteria formed by common bacteria are fixed.
really make it a "star" is the genome research program. Zhu said that the genome plan at that time included 50 species of organisms, plate-based mesh bacteria because between single and multicellular, is considered to be very meaningful for the study of biological evolution. Studying how organisms evolved into humans is a goal of genomics research, and pan-based mesh bacteria are listed as the starting point for evolution.
compared to the little-known pan-based mesh bacteria, cancer cells of the "ghost" is visible to all, it will lurk, but also metastasis. The New England Journal has reported a clinical case in which a kidney transplant recipient developed a melanoma in his transplanted kidney, ruling out various factors of his own, only to find that the original provider had melanoma 20 years ago, but was later cured. This case, which is comparable to the criminal investigation drama, fully demonstrates that cancer cells can lurk and metascess.
paper, the researchers also describe the particularities of two life units: the former, which can find its equivalent far apart, and the latter, which allows cancer to spread rapidly throughout the body.
do they get out of the maze? The concentration gradient of nutrients is the best "marker
since transfer is their daily routine, how do they get out of the maze?
as plants always love to chase sunlight, these two life units always love to chase nutrients.
the driving force of nutrients translate into the mobile power of bacteria and cells? The paper explains that the self-gradient forms the driving force behind the "long-distance migration" of bacteria and cells and becomes the driving force of route decision-making.
so-called self-gradient is by cell degradation of local nutrients, to create a poor nutritional concentration for themselves.
to cancer cells, for example, it is recognized as the most in need of nutrients of the cells, once generated will compete with the body for energy, it can be seen that the nutrients in the media have a strong decomposition ability. The nutrients here are "eaten" and the nutrient concentration elsewhere is higher than the nutrient concentration here, which in turn forms a concentration gradient that pushes the cancer cells forward.
then how do they judge which path to choose or where to choose a dead end?
could be inspired to study the maze's approach. According to records, there are three rules of maze walking: after entering the maze, you can choose a road forward, if you encounter a dead end, immediately return, and make a mark at the intersection, if you meet a fork crossing, observe whether there is a channel that has not been crossed, there is a way forward, did not follow the original road back to a fork, and make a mark. Then repeat the second and third ways of walking until an exit is found.
, according to this law, walking a maze requires no thought, just a mark. The concentration gradient of nutrients is the best "mark" for bacteria and cancer cells.
" dead end means that nutrients will run out, other cells will not come, and if the fork eventually lead to a dead end, will also cause cells to travel back and forth, and ultimately consume more nutrition than smooth roads. Juppoli explained.
In an innovative way, the whole study developed methods that could observe and calculate the entire process, using self-gradient calculations and mathematical models to predict the path-finding capabilities of cells in the maze, and testing the results with actual cells in the maze.
it means to walk out of the maze? A new window is provided to understand issues such as cancer cell metastasis
in the process of development and metastasis, cell migration is usually guided by the degeneration, i.e. cells migrate from low concentrations to high concentration areas based on the concentration gradient of certain chemicals. However, people tend to pay attention to the role of environmental gradient, in fact, many times the environmental gradient can not guide cells across complex environments to move far away.
And this study confirms that self-gradients can navigate bacteria and cells along long, tortuous paths and make accurate choices between living paths and dead ends, allowing cells to effectively solve complex maze problems.
researchers also mathematically described the relationship between the accuracy of cells' search for a living path and the diffusion rate, cell velocity, and path complexity of inducing agents, and were able to predict their success rate.
results are important for biomedical research, such as providing a new research window into the early stages of embryonic development in mammals and the metastasis of cancer cells.
you're still wondering about the skills of bacteria and cancer cells that can walk labyrinths. But from an evolutionary point of view, whether microbes or cancer cells, they have been living on Earth for a long time, and young humans may now be wandering only at the door of the maze created by these ancient creatures.