Low frequency electrical waves in ensembles of proteinoid microspheres

Mougkogiannis, Panagiotis; Adamatzky, Andrew

Abstract

Proteinoids (thermal proteins) are produced by heating amino acids to their melting point and initiation of polymerisation to produce polymeric chains. Amino acid-like molecules, or proteinoids, can condense at high temperatures to create aggregation structures called proteinoid microspheres, which have been reported to exhibit strong electrical oscillations. When the amino acids L-glutamic acid (L-Glu) and L-aspartic acid (L-Asp) were combined with electric fields of varying frequencies and intensities, electrical activity resulted. We recorded electrical activity of the proteinoid microspheres’ ensembles via a pair of differential electrodes. This is analogous to extracellular recording in physiology or EEG in neuroscience but at micro-level. We discovered that the ensembles produce spikes of electrical potential, an average duration of each spike is 26min and average amplitude is 1mV. The spikes are typically grouped in trains of two spikes. The electrical activity of the ensembles can be tuned by external stimulation because ensembles of proteinoid microspheres can generate and propagate electrical activity when exposed to electric fields.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 30, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 3, 2023
• Publication Date: Feb 3, 2023
• Deposit Date: Feb 14, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 14, 2023
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Research (part of Springer Nature)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1992
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-29067-0
• Keywords: Biophysics; Materials science
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10424490
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29067-0