Steric interactions and out-of-equilibrium processes control the internal organization of bacteria.

Despite the absence of a membrane-enclosed nucleus, the bacterial DNA is typically condensed into a compact body-the nucleoid. This compaction influences the localization and dynamics of many cellular processes including transcription, translation, and cell division. Here, we develop a model that takes into account steric interactions among the components of the Escherichia coli transcriptional-translational machinery (TTM) and out-of-equilibrium effects of messenger RNA (mRNA) transcription, translation, and degradation, to explain many observed features of the nucleoid. We show that steric effects, due to the different molecular shapes of the TTM components, are sufficient to drive equilibrium phase separation of the DNA, explaining the formation and size of the nucleoid. In addition, we show that the observed positioning of the nucleoid at midcell is due to the out-of-equilibrium process of mRNA synthesis and degradation: mRNAs apply a pressure on both sides of the nucleoid, localizing it to midcell. We demonstrate that, as the cell grows, the production of these mRNAs is responsible for the nucleoid splitting into two lobes and for their well-known positioning to 1/4 and 3/4 positions on the long cell axis. Finally, our model quantitatively accounts for the observed expansion of the nucleoid when the pool of cytoplasmic mRNAs is depleted. Overall, our study suggests that steric interactions and out-of-equilibrium effects of the TTM are key drivers of the internal spatial organization of bacterial cells.

Two timescales control the creation of large protein aggregates in cells.

Protein aggregation is of particular interest because of its connection with many diseases and disorders. Many factors can alter the dynamics and result of this process, one of them being the diffusivity of the monomers and aggregates in the system. Here, we study experimentally and theoretically an aggregation process in cells, and we identify two distinct physical timescales that set the number and size of aggregates. The first timescale involves fast aggregation of small clusters freely diffusing in the cytoplasm, whereas in the second one, the aggregates are larger than the pore size of the cytoplasm and thus barely diffuse, and the aggregation process is slowed down. However, the process is not entirely halted, potentially reflecting a myriad of active but random forces that stir the aggregates. Such a slow timescale is essential to account for the experimental results of the aggregation process. These results could also have implications in other processes of spatial organization in cell biology, such as phase-separated droplets.

A statistical inference approach to reconstruct intercellular interactions in cell migration experiments.

Migration of cells can be characterized by two prototypical types of motion: individual and collective migration. We propose a statistical inference approach designed to detect the presence of cell-cell interactions that give rise to collective behaviors in cell motility experiments. This inference method has been first successfully tested on synthetic motional data and then applied to two experiments. In the first experiment, cells migrate in a wound-healing model: When applied to this experiment, the inference method predicts the existence of cell-cell interactions, correctly mirroring the strong intercellular contacts that are present in the experiment. In the second experiment, dendritic cells migrate in a chemokine gradient. Our inference analysis does not provide evidence for interactions, indicating that cells migrate by sensing independently the chemokine source. According to this prediction, we speculate that mature dendritic cells disregard intercellular signals that could otherwise delay their arrival to lymph vessels.

Spatial organization of bacterial transcription and translation.

In bacteria such as Escherichia coli, DNA is compacted into a nucleoid near the cell center, whereas ribosomes-molecular complexes that translate mRNAs into proteins-are mainly localized to the poles. We study the impact of this spatial organization using a minimal reaction-diffusion model for the cellular transcriptional-translational machinery. Although genome-wide mRNA-nucleoid segregation still lacks experimental validation, our model predicts that [Formula: see text] of mRNAs are segregated to the poles. In addition, our analysis reveals a "circulation" of ribosomes driven by the flux of mRNAs, from synthesis in the nucleoid to degradation at the poles. We show that our results are robust with respect to multiple, biologically relevant factors, such as mRNA degradation by RNase enzymes, different phases of the cell division cycle and growth rates, and the existence of nonspecific, transient interactions between ribosomes and mRNAs. Finally, we confirm that the observed nucleoid size stems from a balance between the forces that the chromosome and mRNAs exert on each other. This suggests a potential global feedback circuit in which gene expression feeds back on itself via nucleoid compaction.

Entropic effects in a nonequilibrium system: Flocks of birds.

When European starlings come together to form a flock, the distribution of their individual velocities narrows around the mean velocity of the flock. We argue that, in a broad class of models for the joint distribution of positions and velocities, this narrowing generates an entropic effect that opposes the cohesion of the flock. The strength of this effect depends strongly on the nature of the interactions among birds: If birds are coupled to a fixed number of neighbors, the entropic forces are weak, while if they couple to all other birds within a fixed distance, the entropic effects are sufficient to tear a flock apart.

Non-perturbative effects in spin glasses.

We present a numerical study of an Ising spin glass with hierarchical interactions--the hierarchical Edwards-Anderson model with an external magnetic field (HEA). We study the model with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations in the mean-field (MF) and non-mean-field (NMF) regions corresponding to d ≥ 4 and d < 4 for the d-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising model respectively. We compare the MC results with those of a renormalization-group (RG) study where the critical fixed point is treated as a perturbation of the MF one, along the same lines as in the -expansion for the Ising model. The MC and the RG method agree in the MF region, predicting the existence of a transition and compatible values of the critical exponents. Conversely, the two approaches markedly disagree in the NMF case, where the MC data indicates a transition, while the RG analysis predicts that no perturbative critical fixed point exists. Also, the MC estimate of the critical exponent ν in the NMF region is about twice as large as its classical value, even if the analog of the system dimension is within only ~2% from its upper-critical-dimension value. Taken together, these results indicate that the transition in the NMF region is governed by strong non-perturbative effects.

Enzyme clustering accelerates processing of intermediates through metabolic channeling.

We present a quantitative model to demonstrate that coclustering multiple enzymes into compact agglomerates accelerates the processing of intermediates, yielding the same efficiency benefits as direct channeling, a well-known mechanism in which enzymes are funneled between enzyme active sites through a physical tunnel. The model predicts the separation and size of coclusters that maximize metabolic efficiency, and this prediction is in agreement with previously reported spacings between coclusters in mammalian cells. For direct validation, we study a metabolic branch point in Escherichia coli and experimentally confirm the model prediction that enzyme agglomerates can accelerate the processing of a shared intermediate by one branch, and thus regulate steady-state flux division. Our studies establish a quantitative framework to understand coclustering-mediated metabolic channeling and its application to both efficiency improvement and metabolic regulation.

Inverse spin glass and related maximum entropy problems.

If we have a system of binary variables and we measure the pairwise correlations among these variables, then the least structured or maximum entropy model for their joint distribution is an Ising model with pairwise interactions among the spins. Here we consider inhomogeneous systems in which we constrain, for example, not the full matrix of correlations, but only the distribution from which these correlations are drawn. In this sense, what we have constructed is an inverse spin glass: rather than choosing coupling constants at random from a distribution and calculating correlations, we choose the correlations from a distribution and infer the coupling constants. We argue that such models generate a block structure in the space of couplings, which provides an explicit solution of the inverse problem. This allows us to generate a phase diagram in the space of (measurable) moments of the distribution of correlations. We expect that these ideas will be most useful in building models for systems that are nonequilibrium statistical mechanics problems, such as networks of real neurons.

Renormalization-group computation of the critical exponents of hierarchical spin glasses: large-scale behavior and divergence of the correlation length.

In a recent work [M. Castellana and G. Parisi, Phys. Rev. E 82, 040105(R) (2010)], the large-scale behavior of the simplest non-mean-field spin-glass system has been analyzed, and the critical exponent related to the divergence of the correlation length has been computed at two loops within the ε-expansion technique by two independent methods. By performing the explicit calculation of the critical exponents at two loops, one obtains that the two methods yield the same result. This shows that the underlying renormalization group ideas apply consistently in this disordered model, in such a way that an ε-expansion can be set up. The question of the extension to high orders of this ε-expansion is particularly interesting from the physical point of view. Indeed, once high orders of the series in ε for the critical exponents are known, one could check the convergence properties of the series, and find out if the ordinary series resummation techniques, yielding very accurate predictions for the Ising model, work also for this model. If this is the case, a consistent and predictive non-mean-field theory for such a disordered system could be established. In that regard, in this work we expose the underlying techniques of such a two-loop computation. We show with an explicit example that such a computation could be quite easily automatized, i.e., performed by a computer program, in order to compute high orders of the ε-expansion, and so eventually make this theory physically predictive. Moreover, all the underlying renormalization group ideas implemented in such a computation are widely discussed and exposed.

Extreme value statistics distributions in spin glasses.

We study the probability distribution of the pseudocritical temperature in a mean-field and in a short-range spin-glass model: the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick and the Edwards-Anderson (EA) model. In both cases, we put in evidence the underlying connection between the fluctuations of the pseudocritical point and the extreme value statistics of random variables. For the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, both with Gaussian and binary couplings, the distribution of the pseudocritical temperature is found to be the Tracy-Widom distribution. For the EA model, the distribution is found to be the Gumbel distribution. Being the EA model representative of uniaxial magnetic materials with quenched disorder like Fe(0.5)Mn)0.5)TiO(3) or Eu(0.5)Ba(0.5)MnO(3), its pseudocritical point distribution should be a priori experimentally accessible.

Hierarchical random energy model of a spin glass.

We introduce a random energy model on a hierarchical lattice where the interaction strength between variables is a decreasing function of their mutual hierarchical distance, making it a non-mean-field model. Through small coupling series expansion and a direct numerical solution of the model, we provide evidence for a spin-glass condensation transition similar to the one occurring in the usual mean-field random energy model. At variance with the mean field, the high temperature branch of the free-energy is nonanalytic at the transition point.

Renormalization group computation of the critical exponents of hierarchical spin glasses.

The large scale behavior of the simplest non-mean-field spin-glass system is analyzed, and the critical exponent related to the divergence of the correlation length is computed at two loops within the ε-expansion technique with two independent methods. The techniques presented show how the underlying ideas of the renormalization group apply also in this disordered model, in such a way that an ε-expansion can be consistently set up. By pushing such calculation to high orders in ε, a consistent non-mean-field theory for such disordered system could be established, giving a substantial contribution the development of a predictive theory for real spin glasses.