Morphological and electrical properties of proteinoid−actin networks

Mougkogiannis, Panagiotis; Adamatzky, Andrew

Abstract

Proteinoids, or thermal proteins, are produced by heating amino acids. Proteinoids form hollow microspheres in water. The microspheres produce oscillation of electrical potential. Actin is a filament-forming protein responsible for communication, information processing and decision making in eukaryotic cells. We synthesize randomly organized networks of proteinoid microspheres spanned by actin filaments and study their morphology and electrical potential oscillatory dynamics. We analyze proteinoid−actin networks' responses to electrical stimulation. The signals come from logistic maps, the Lorenz attractor, the Rossler oscillator, and the FitzHugh−Nagumo system. We show how the networks attenuated the signals produced by these models. We demonstrate that emergent logical patterns derived from oscillatory behavior of proteinoid−actin networks show characteristics of Boolean logic gates, providing evidence for the computational ability to combine different components through architectural changes in the dynamic interface. Our experimental laboratory study paves a base for generation of proto-neural networks and implementation of neuromorphic computation with them.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 21, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jan 27, 2025
• Publication Date: Feb 11, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 27, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 28, 2025
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-1343
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 4952–4977
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c10488
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13650776
• Publisher URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.4c10488