Synchrony and pattern formation of coupled genetic oscillators on a chip of artificial cells

Understanding how biochemical networks lead to large-scale non- equilibrium self-organization and pattern formation in life is a major challenge, with important implications for the design of programma- ble synthetic systems. Here, we assembled cell-free genetic oscillators in a spatially distributed system of on-chip DNA compartments as artificial cells, and measured reaction–diffusion dynamics at the single- cell level up to the multicell scale. Using a cell-free gene network we programmed molecular interactions that control the frequency of os- cillations, population variability, and dynamical stability. We observed frequency entrainment, synchronized oscillatory reactions and pattern formation in space, as manifestation of collective behavior. The tran- sition to synchrony occurs as the local coupling between compart- ments strengthens. Spatiotemporal oscillations are induced either by a concentration gradient of a diffusible signal, or by spontaneous symmetry breaking close to a transition from oscillatory to nonoscillatory dynamics.

Tayar A. M. , Karzbrun E, Noireaux V, Bar-Ziv RH. 2017.Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci, doi:10.1073/pnas.1710620114, 2017