In biological systems, emergent properties may develop due to numerous individual molecular elements in a population being strongly coupled in a non-linear manner. Under suitable conditions, the formation in vitroof a population of microtubules, a major component of the cellular skeleton (cytoskeleton), behaves as a complex system and develops a number of emergent phenomena. These preparations, which initially contain just two molecular species, a nucleotide and a protein, self-organize by reaction and diffusion and the morphology that develops is determined at a critical moment early in the process by weak external factors, such as gravity and magnetic fields. The process also results in other emergent phenomena, namely replication of form, generation of positional information, and collective transport and organization of colloidal-sized particles. Microtubules are responsible both for cellular organization and the transport of subcellular particles from one part of the cell to another. Frequently, this behaviour is triggered by some weak internal or external factor. The in vitroobservations outlined thus illustrate how in a simple biological system, a complex behaviour may give rise to emergent phenomena that outwardly resemble major biological functions.

Keywords:
Self-organization, biological, Cell biology, Microtubules, Reaction-diffusion, Bifurcations and triggering factors, Particle transport and organization, Positional information, Replication of form
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© 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel
2007
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