The Role of Cell Membrane Information Reception, Processing, and Communication in the Structure and Function of Multicellular Tissue

Abstract

Investigations of information dynamics in eukaryotic cells focus almost exclusively on heritable information in the genome. Gene networks are modeled as “central processors” that receive, analyze, and respond to intracellular and extracellular signals with the nucleus described as a cell’s control center. Here, we present a model in which cellular information is a distributed system that includes non-genomic information processing in the cell membrane that may quantitatively exceed that of the genome. Within this model, the nucleus largely acts a source of macromolecules and processes information needed to synchronize their production with temporal variations in demand. However, the nucleus cannot produce microsecond responses to acute, life-threatening perturbations and cannot spatially resolve incoming signals or direct macromolecules to the cellular regions where they are needed. In contrast, the cell membrane, as the interface with its environment, can rapidly detect, process, and respond to external threats and opportunities through the large amounts of potential information encoded within the transmembrane ion gradient. Our model proposes environmental information is detected by specialized protein gates within ion-specific transmembrane channels. When the gate receives a specific environmental signal, the ion channel opens and the received information is communicated into the cell via flow of a specific ion species (i.e., K+, Na+, Cl−, Ca2+, Mg2+) along electrochemical gradients. The fluctuation of an ion concentration within the cytoplasm adjacent to the membrane channel can elicit an immediate, local response by altering the location and function of peripheral membrane proteins. Signals that affect a larger surface area of the cell membrane and/or persist over a prolonged time period will produce similarly cytoplasmic changes on larger spatial and time scales. We propose that as the amplitude, spatial extent, and duration of changes in cytoplasmic ion concentrations increase, the information can be communicated to the nucleus and other intracellular structure through ion flows along elements of the cytoskeleton to the centrosome (via microtubules) or proteins in the nuclear membrane (via microfilaments). These dynamics add spatial and temporal context to the more well-recognized information communication from the cell membrane to the nucleus following ligand binding to membrane receptors. Here, the signal is transmitted and amplified through transduction by the canonical molecular (e.g., Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases (MAPK) pathways. Cytoplasmic diffusion allows this information to be broadly distributed to intracellular organelles but at the cost of loss of spatial and temporal information also contained in ligand binding.

Small variations in nanoparticle structure dictate differential cellular stress responses and mode of cell death

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Yeast Fermentation at Low Temperatures: Adaptation to Changing Environmental Conditions and Formation of Volatile Compounds

“…Singer and Nicolson proposed the first model for membrane fluidity in 1972, describing a liquid-crystalline lipid bilayer in which proteins are submerged [ 93 ]. The cell membrane has several very important functions in microorganisms [ 94 , 95 ]. It is the primary defensive structure, separating the extracellular environment from the inner cell structures.…”

Electrical Propagation of Condensed and Diffuse Ions Along Actin Filaments

“…Innovative models and theories on the electrical activities in the cytoskeleton are becoming a valuable tool to understand information transfer inside neurons (Frieden and Gatenby, 2019;Gatenby, 2019;Frieden and Gatenby, 2020). Actin filaments and microtubules, a major component of the cytoskeleton, have gained reputation as bionanowires capable of conducting ionic waves by utilizing the biological ionic environment (Ndzana and Mohamadou, 2019).…”