A recursive enzymatic competition network capable of multitask molecular information processing

TL;DR

Researchers designed a complex enzymatic network that can process multiple types of information, like temperature and light, similar to how living cells function.

Contribution

A scalable enzymatic network using recursive competition for multitask information processing is introduced.

Findings

The network can act as a temperature sensor with 1.3 °C accuracy between 25 °C and 55 °C.

It performs decision-making and tuning tasks akin to neurological systems.

The system can interface with optical systems through sensitivity to light pulses.

Abstract

Living cells understand their environment by combining, integrating and interpreting chemical and physical stimuli. Despite considerable advances in the design of enzymatic reaction networks that mimic hallmarks of living systems, these approaches lack the complexity to fully capture biological information processing. Here we introduce a scalable approach to design complex enzymatic reaction networks capable of reservoir computation based on recursive competition of substrates. This protease-based network can perform a broad range of classification tasks based on peptide and physicochemical inputs and can simultaneously perform an extensive set of discrete and continuous information processing tasks. The enzymatic reservoir can act as a temperature sensor from 25 °C to 55 °C with 1.3 °C accuracy, and performs decision-making, activation and tuning tasks common to neurological systems. We show a possible route to temporal information processing and a direct interface with optical systems by demonstrating the extension of the network to incorporate sensitivity to light pulses. Our results show a class of competition-based molecular systems capable of increasingly powerful information-processing tasks.

Designing enzymatic reaction networks capable of mimicking the complexity of biological information processing is challenging. Now, an in chemico reservoir sensor based on a recursive enzymatic competition network has been designed that can process diverse physical and chemical inputs and perform several information-processing tasks.

Figures