Opening details

Cyanobacteria were found to regulate their genes using the same physical principle used in AM radio transmission. A new study published in the journal Current Biology showed that cyanobacteria “use variations in the amplitude (strength) of the pulse to transmit information within individual cells,” according to Channel 24. This discovery sheds light on how biological rhythms work together to regulate cellular processes.

In AM (amplitude modulation) radio, a wave of constant power and frequency (called a carrier wave) is produced from fluctuations in the electric current. An audio signal containing the transmitted information (such as music or speech) is superimposed on the carrier wave. This is done by changing the amplitude of the carrier wave according to the frequency of the audio signal.

A research team led by Professor James Locke from the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge (SLCU) and Dr Bruno Martins from the University of Warwick has discovered that a similar radio-like mechanism is at work in cyanobacteria.

• In these, the cell division cycle (the process by which a cell grows and divides into two new cells) acts as a “carrier signal.”
• The modulation signal comes from the bacterium’s 24-hour circadian clock, which acts as an internal timekeeping mechanism.

This discovery provides an answer to a long-standing question in cell biology: How do cells integrate signals from two oscillatory processes—the cell cycle and circadian rhythm—that operate at different frequencies? Until now it was unclear how these two cycles could be coordinated.

To solve this mystery, the research team used: single cell time-lapse microscopy And mathematical modeling. They monitored the expression of the alternative sigma factor RPoD4 protein using time-lapse microscopy. RPoD4 plays an important role in initiating transcription, the process by which genetic information from DNA is copied into RNA. The simulations allowed the researchers to study signal processing mechanisms by comparing simulation results with microscopy data. The team discovered that RPoD4 is only turned on by pulses that occur during cell division, making it an ideal candidate for monitoring.

The lead author of the report, Dr. Chao Ye explained: “We found that the circadian clock determines how strong these pulses are over time. Using this strategy, cells can encode information about two oscillatory signals in the same output signal: the cell cycle in pulse frequency and the approximately 24-hour clock in pulse strength. This corresponds to biological “This is the first time we have observed a circadian clock used to control functions. Pulse amplitude modulation is a concept often associated with communications technology.”

What does it give us?

Changing the frequency of the cell cycle by ambient light or the circadian clock by genetic mutations confirmed the basic principle. It is surprising to see that cyanobacteria emerged 2.7 billion years ago in the nature of what we sometimes think of as “our” engineering rules, providing an elegant solution to this information processing problem.
– study co-author Dr. Martins said.

Professor Locke added: “One of the reasons we study cyanobacteria is that they have the simplest circadian clock of any organism, so understanding this provides the basis for understanding clocks in more complex organisms such as humans and plants.”

These principles may have broader applications in synthetic biology and biotechnology. For example, it can help us Developing products that are more resistant to changing environmental conditionsThis will have consequences for agriculture and sustainable human development.