Could Living Cells Use Phase Transitions to Process Information?

TL;DR

This paper explores how phase transitions, specifically biomolecular condensation, could enable cells to process information through physical interactions, expanding the understanding of cellular computation beyond traditional chemical reaction networks.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that cellular phase transitions can serve as a basis for information processing, linking biological phenomena with physical computing frameworks.

Findings

Biomolecular condensation is implicated in cellular computational processes.

Physical interactions and phase transitions could contribute to cellular information processing.

The framework suggests new opportunities for research in biophysics and soft matter.

Abstract

To maintain homeostasis, living cells process information with networks of interacting molecules. Traditional models for cellular information processing have focused on networks of chemical reactions between molecules. Here, we describe how networks of physical interactions could contribute to the processing of information inside cells. In particular, we focus on the impact of biomolecular condensation, a structural phase transition found in cells. Biomolecular condensation has recently been implicated in diverse cellular processes. Some of these are essentially computational, including classification and control tasks. We place these findings in the broader context of physical computing, an emerging framework for describing how the native dynamics of nonlinear physical systems can be leveraged to perform complex computations. The synthesis of these ideas raises questions about expressivity (the range of problems that cellular phase transitions might be able to solve) and learning (how these systems could adapt and evolve to solve different problems). This emerging area of research presents diverse opportunities across molecular biophysics, soft matter, and physical computing.