Microtubules the seat of Consciousness

Science and Technology
162

This clearly shows the role microtubules play in the emergence of consciousness and as well as the utility of microtubules in bird migration via the Earth’s magnetic fields.

Radical pairs may play a role in microtubule reorganization

Hadi Zadeh-Haghighicorresponding author1,2,3 and Christoph Simoncorresponding author1,2,3
Sci Rep. 2022; 12: 6109.

Abstract

The exact mechanism behind general anesthesia remains an open question in neuroscience. It has been proposed that anesthetics selectively prevent consciousness and memory via acting on microtubules (MTs).

It is known that the magnetic field modulates MT organization. A recent study shows that a radical pair model can explain the isotope effect in xenon-induced anesthesia and predicts magnetic field effects on anesthetic potency. Further, reactive oxygen species are also implicated in MT stability and anesthesia.

Based on a simple radical pair mechanism model and a simple mathematical model of MT organization, we show that magnetic fields can modulate spin dynamics of naturally occurring radical pairs in MT. We propose that the spin dynamics influence a rate in the reaction cycle, which translates into a change in the MT density. We can reproduce magnetic field effects on the MT concentration that have been observed. Our model also predicts additional effects at slightly higher fields.

Our model further predicts that the effect of zinc on the MT density exhibits isotopic dependence. The findings of this work make a connection between microtubule-based and radical pair-based quantum theories of consciousness.

…

Quantum physics has been proposed to be part of the solution for the mystery of consciousness. In particular the holistic character of quantum entanglement might provide an answer to the binding problem14.

In the 1990s, Penrose and Hameroff proposed a theory of consciousness based on quantum computations in MTs15–18. Computational modeling suggested that electron resonance transfer among aromatic amino acid tryptophan (Trp) rings in tubulin (subunits of MTs) in a quantum electronic process could play roles in consciousness19. Craddock et al. showed that anesthetic molecules might bind in the same regions and hence result in loss of consciousness20.

In a recent experiment, Zhang et al. observed a connection between electronic states and vibrational states in tubulin and MTs21. However, quantum electronic coherence beyond ultrafast timescales demands more supporting evidence and has been recently challenged experimentally22. In contrast, quantum spin coherence could be preserved for much longer timescales23.

For example, Fisher has proposed that phosphorus nuclear spins could be entangled in networks of Posner molecules, Ca9(PO4)6, which could form the basis of a quantum mechanism for neural processing in the brain24. However, this particular spin-based model also requires more supporting evidence and recently has faced experimental challenges25.

Continuing our quest. This article may expand our knowledge of the incredible versatility of microtubules.

All Wired Up: An Exploration of the Electrical Properties of Microtubules and Tubulin

Abstract

Microtubules are hollow, cylindrical polymers of the protein α, β tubulin, that interact mechanochemically with a variety of macromolecules. Due to their mechanically robust nature, microtubules have gained attention as tracks for precisely directed transport of nanomaterials within lab-on-a-chip devices. Primarily due to the unusually negative tail-like C-termini of tubulin, recent work demonstrates that these biopolymers are also involved in a broad spectrum of intracellular electrical signaling.

Microtubules and their electrostatic properties are discussed in this Review, followed by an evaluation of how these biopolymers respond mechanically to electrical stimuli, through microtubule migration, electrorotation and C-termini conformation changes. Literature focusing on how microtubules act as nanowires capable of intracellular ionic transport, charge storage, and ionic signal amplification is reviewed, illustrating how these biopolymers attenuate ionic movement in response to electrical stimuli.

The Review ends with a discussion on the important questions, challenges, and future opportunities for intracellular microtubule-based electrical signaling.
Microtubules the seat of Consciousness - #162 by write4u

and

Active Alignment of Microtubules with Electric Fields

Abstract

The direction of translocation of microtubules on a surface coated with kinesin is usually random. Here we demonstrate and quantify the rate at which externally applied electric fields can direct moving microtubules parallel to the field by deflecting their leading end toward the anode.

Effects of electric field strength, kinesin surface density, and microtubule translocation speed on the rate of redirection of microtubules were analyzed statistically.

Furthermore, we demonstrated that microtubules can be steered in any desired direction via manipulation of externally applied E-fields.
more… https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/nl061474k

Watch the video in the linked site!

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Continuing the quest

Understanding the emergence of microbialconsciousness: From a perspectiveof the Subject–Object Model (SOM)

Based on fossil evidence, microbes occupied approximately 2.75–3 billion years of Earth’s evolu-tionary history; the pre-Cambrian period with free-living, single-celled organisms (Tomescu et al. [75]).Some microorganisms initially embraced living in isolation but gradually formed loose communitiesor colonies as part of the evolutionary advantage to evolve as a reflection of the biological imperativeto survive.

About 1.5 billion years ago, eukaryotic cells appeared apparently as symbiotic mergers of previously independent organelles such as mitochondria, plastids, etc. with the prokaryotic cells (Knollet al. [35]). At later stages, sentient or proto-consciousness driven differentiation, organization and so-cialization were some of the evolutionary advantages which expedited the evolutionary process in themicrobial world (Fabbro et al. [17]).

Here, consciousness as proto-consciousness was the biggest driver for intelligence observed in the microbial world which resulted in emergence of single-cellular and collective intelligence. Therefore the emergence of primitive forms of consciousness was evident with therise in intelligent behaviour within the world of microbes that occupied a major portion of the Gaia’s evolutionary history (Reddy and Pereira [64], Pereira [51]).

The formation of the first biological cell forms the basis for all life that now exists on the Gaia. Such an event is supported by various theories and hypotheses, but with their own pros and cons (Sheldrake [69], William [84], Lipton [39], Lanza and Berman [37], Reddy and Pereira [62,64]). With the increased degrees of freedom driven by various ecological factors this cellar unit slowly started acting as a separate entity by itself. The survival necessity of this entity could have triggered the development of various adaptive mechanisms and every step towards adapting to the environment slowly, might have resulted
in a qualitative property called intelligence, and every action motivated from this intelligence field resulting in a specific behaviour.

Environmental and other interactive forces keep these units in a constant survival challenge and hence create the need for mutual support for the sake of one’s existence. As stated above, quantum biology is now starting to solve the mysteries associated with the field of evolutionary biology and the origin of life. Though the evolution of life or consciousness in general is a wide theme to be addressed, in the scope of the present paper, we focus our attention to the study of emergence of consciousness in the microbial systems. For this purpose, we make use of the Subject–Object Model (SOM) of consciousness developed by one of the present authors (Reddy [59]) and extrapolate the Orchestrated Objective Reduction (Orch-OR) theory put forth by Hameroff and Penrose [26].
Since the SOM of consciousness supports the presence of consciousness in all living systems to varying levels and degrees; which again depends on where a specific species would fall on the evolutionary scale, it naturally supports the pansychic view of the world.

In order to understand the evolutionary footsteps of consciousness, one needs a different definition and perspective of consciousness from that which we observe in humans.

Humans can relate and express their conscious experiences of life and hence we can set a standard to quantify them, but this is not the case with other living systems. They exhibit different forms of conscious expressions as observable behaviour and survival strategies etc.

Hence, when we study the evolution of conscious life in these systems, we need to consider the alterate expressions of consciousness like conscious behaviour as the deciding and judging criteria.

Several forms of conscious behaviours are known to exist across the wide spectra of non-humans species, and hence there is no reason why arguments for possession of consciousness must be backed by the existence of the nervous system; a unique and complex functional system, but in its own place and organism.

Though conscious behaviours observed in microorganisms may not be similar to that of humans, they are unique in their own space; therefore many scientists preferably use the terminology as sentience or proto-consciousness. In the context of this paper, we discuss the conscious behaviours exhibited by various microbial systems to understand the primitive forms of conscious expressions along with the evolving cytoskeleton.

more … (PDF) Understanding the emergence of microbial consciousness: From a perspective of the Subject–Object Model (SOM) | J. Shashi Kiran Reddy - Academia.edu

Continued…

Microtubules Quantum Theories

In the last decade many theories and papers have been published concerning the biophysical properties of MTs including the hypothesis of MTs implication in coherent quantum states in the brain evolving in some form of energy and information transfer. The most discussed theory on quantum effects involving MTs has been proposed by Hameroff and Penrose that published the OrchOR Model in 1996[22,23]. They supposed that quantum-superposed states develop in tubulins, remain coherent and recruit more superposed tubulins until a mass-time-energy threshold, related to quantumgravity, is reached (up to 500 msec). This model has been discussed and refined for more than10 years, mainly focusing attention to the decoherence criterion after the Tegmark critical paper of 2000[24, 25] and proposing several methods of shielding MTs against the environment of the brain[26-28].

In the Hameroff model MTs perform a kind of quantum computation through the tubulins working like a cellular automata. The MTs interior works as an electromagnetic wave guide, filled with water in an organized collective states, transmitting information through the brain [29].In the same years Nanopoulos et al adopted the string theory to develop a so called QED-Cavity model predicting dissipationless energy transfer along MTs as well as quantum teleportation of states at near room temperature[30-33]

The Tuszynski approach is based on the biophysical aspects of MTs. Tubulins have electric dipole moments due to asymmetric charges distribution and MTs can be modeled as a lattice of orientated dipoles that can be in random phase, ferro-electric (parallel-aligned) and an intermediate weakly ferroelectric phase like a spin-glass phase[34-36]. The model has been sustained by Faber et al[37] who considered a MT as a classical sub-neuronal information processor

more … https://www.academia.edu/21020216/Evidences_of_new_biophysical_properties_of_microtubules_submitted_to?email_work_card=view-paper

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Microtubules as One-Dimensional Crystals: Is Crystal-Like Structure the Key to the Information Processing of Living Systems?

Abstract

Each tubulin protein molecule on the cylindrical surface of a microtubule, a fundamental element of the cytoskeleton, acts as a unit cell of a crystal sensor. Electromagnetic sensing enables the 2D surface of microtubule to act as a crystal or a collective electromagnetic signal processing system. We propose a model in which each tubulin dimer acts as the period of a one-dimensional crystal with effective electrical impedance related to its molecular structure. Based on the mathematical crystal theory with one-dimensional translational symmetry, we simulated the electrical transport properties of the signal across the microtubule length and compared it to our single microtubule experimental results. The agreement between theory and experiment suggests that one of the most essential components of any Eukaryotic cell acts as a one-dimensional crystal.

Keywords:
microtubule; tubulin; crystal; transmission network

much, much more…

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This is a very interesting and informative conversation

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Very cool video, I look forward to having more time to go though it again, a lot of meat on those bones,
33:00
50:00, György Buzsáki 53:00 brain centric view

gets very close to see consciousness as an exchange, interaction.
I look forward to learning more about him.

1:02:50
The question, is consciousness, within this physical structure, is that all that there is?

1:05:00 - Michael Halassa - I can’t tell you how
reality of the inner experience ?

1:06:40 György: " “The dream that we dream together is reality’, it’s a nice metaphor, but you ask the question, …”
“Our brains calibrate each other”
Definitely need to learn more about György Buzsáki.

Excellent. The previous microtubule paper seems exciting too, but that’s going to take more time,

I’m outta time, dog is already pissed and there’s work to be done outside. :cowboy_hat_face:
thanks, i’ll be back…

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Decoding how plants think.

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Microtubules: Evolving roles and critical cellular interactions

Short abstract

Microtubules are cytoskeletal elements known as drivers of directed cell migration, vesicle and organelle trafficking, and mitosis. In this review, we discuss new research in the lens that has shed light into further roles for stable microtubules in the process of development and morphogenesis. In the lens, as well as other systems, distinct roles for characteristically dynamic microtubules and stabilized populations are coming to light. Understanding the mechanisms of microtubule stabilization and the associated microtubule post-translational modifications is an evolving field of study. Appropriate cellular homeostasis relies on not only one cytoskeletal element, but also rather an interaction between cytoskeletal proteins as well as other cellular regulators. Microtubules are key integrators with actin and intermediate filaments, as well as cell–cell junctional proteins and other cellular regulators including myosin and RhoGTPases to maintain this balance.

Impact statement

The role of microtubules in cellular functioning is constantly expanding. In this review, we examine new and exciting fields of discovery for microtubule’s involvement in morphogenesis, highlight our evolving understanding of differential roles for stabilized versus dynamic subpopulations, and further understanding of microtubules as a cellular integrator.

Acetylated microtubules are also the foundation of primary cilia, which are generally referred to as the antennae of the cell, involved in sensing the cellular environment, cell signaling, liquid flow, cell polarity and multiple sensory organ functions including smell, sound, and sight.[45]

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Thanks for keep me posted, it’ll be a while before I have the time to check it our, along with an others you’ve recently posted. Interesting stuff for sure, and I’m glad you continue sharing.

Later

I think I’ve seen that one but haven’t had a chance to check. Yet.

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Here is another must.

I think you will really enjoy this video.

For all forest lovers, this video is an absolute must in order to speak of the forest from practical “knowledge”, rather than well-intentioned “ignorance”.

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I just read an article on the Hamiltonian operator and it struck me that this concept may be applicable to the ability of simple organisms to find solutions to problems via natural selection of enfolded potentials in both plants and animals.

Quantum mechanical aspects of cell microtubules:
science fiction or realistic possibility?

To cite this article: Nick E Mavromatos 2011 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 306 012008
CERN - Theory Division, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland

On leave from: King’s College London, Physics Department, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK. E-mail: nikolaos.mavromatos@kcl.ac.uk

Abstract.

Recent experimental research with marine algae points towards quantum
entanglement at ambient temperature, with correlations between essential biological units separated by distances as long as 20 Angstr¨oms. The associated decoherence times, due to environmental influences, are found to be of order 400 fs. This prompted some authors to connect such findings with the possibility of some kind of quantum computation taking place in these biological entities: within the decoherence time scales, the cell “quantum calculates” the optimal “path” along which energy and signal would be transported more efficiently. Prompted by these experimental results, in this talk I remind the audience of a related topic proposed several years ago in connection with the possible role of quantum mechanics and/or field theory on dissipation-free energy transfer in microtubules (MT), which constitute fundamental cell substructures. The basic assumption was to view the cell MT as quantum electrodynamical cavities, providing sufficient isolation in vivo to enable the formation of electric-dipole quantum coherent solitonic states across the tubulin dimer walls. Crucial to this, were argued to be the electromagnetic interactions of the dipole moments of the tubulin dimers with the dipole quanta in the ordered water interiors of the MT, that play the rˆole of quantum coherent cavity modes.

Quantum entanglement between tubulin dimers was argued to be possible, provided there exists sufficient isolation from other environmental cell effects. The model was based on certain ferroelectric aspects of MT. Subsequent experiments in vitro could not confirm ferroelectricity at room temperatures, however they provided experimental measurements of the induced electric
dipole moments of the MT under the influence of external electric fields. Nevertheless, this does not demonstrate that in vivo MT are not ferroelectric materials.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/306/1/012008/pdf

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No time to really look at this now, just a skim, I need to call it quits and get to sleep, tomorrow it’s a three hour drive to the Atlantic Ocean, gonna get my feet wet in the ocean and help make it a fun adventure for my two young pals, big family event, with Nana & Napa designated chaperones, so need that sleep.

Regarding the study, it’s amazing what they are able to dissect. As an aside, “quantum” is a very impressive word that seems to demand some sort of awe or mystery, but really, these reactions are happening down at the quantum level of matter/energy. So yes it’s quantum, what else could it be? Or should it be?

“quantum calculates” sure, why not, how else could it be, the amazing thing is they seem to be able to describe the specifics. That is very impressive.

“decoherence time scales” If I had the time I’d be googling that.
Later.

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An update about the role microtubules play in memory.

Cytoskeletal Signaling: Is Memory Encoded in Microtubule Lattices by CaMKII Phosphorylation?

Abstract

Memory is attributed to strengthened synaptic connections among particular brain neurons, yet synaptic membrane components are transient, whereas memories can endure.

This suggests synaptic information is encoded and ‘hard-wired’ elsewhere, e.g. at molecular levels within the post-synaptic neuron. In long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular and molecular model for memory, post-synaptic calcium ion (Ca2+) flux activates the hexagonal Ca2±calmodulin dependent kinase II (CaMKII), a dodacameric holoenzyme containing 2 hexagonal sets of 6 kinase domains. Each kinase domain can either phosphorylate substrate proteins, or not (i.e. encoding one bit). Thus each set of extended CaMKII kinases can potentially encode synaptic Ca2+ information via phosphorylation as ordered arrays of binary ‘bits’.

Candidate sites for CaMKII phosphorylation-encoded molecular memory include microtubules (MTs), cylindrical organelles whose surfaces represent a regular lattice with a pattern of hexagonal polymers of the protein tubulin.

Using molecular mechanics modeling and electrostatic profiling, we find that spatial dimensions and geometry of the extended CaMKII kinase domains precisely match those of MT hexagonal lattices.

This suggests sets of six CaMKII kinase domains phosphorylate hexagonal MT lattice neighborhoods collectively, e.g. conveying synaptic information as ordered arrays of six “bits”, and thus “bytes”, with 64 to 5,281 possible bit states per CaMKII-MT byte.

Signaling and encoding in MTs and other cytoskeletal structures offer rapid, robust solid-state information processing which may reflect a general code for MT-based memory and information processing within neurons and other eukaryotic cells.

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Oh please, Hameroff does way more philosophizing in his talks, then Dr. Solms!

Don’t just share the link, get to know it’s content.

Right, Tegmark “hard facts” - that’s why he also loves warming up his audiences with stories about matter and atoms being nothing but empty space, with itty bitty electrons spinning around a tiny nucleus.
Why because one of the earliest models produced that perspective - even though we know that electrons are not points of energy, but speeding blurs of distributed energy.
Simply because a very thin film of gold will allow electrons to penetrate. Try putting a few layers of that gold leaf together, then no electrons pass through, but that’s dismissed as besides the point . . . ?

He’s firmly entrenched in his mindscape and a nifty profitable intellectual entertainment career.

I’m sure you are.

Exactly there is no magic going on, microtubules are components of extremely complex systems, but you make it sound like they are doing our thinking for us. When it simply isn’t that simple, even if microtubules are key component they are still part of a complex system and they are dependent on that entire system to fulfill their own function.

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This is a conversation between two experts on neurology and consciousness.
(CC, you may find some corroboration)

image
image1294×628 151 KB

Seth: I would go some of the way with you on that. I think the challenge of understanding consciousness is simpler than it’s sometimes made out to be. Just compare studying consciousness with something like the James Webb space telescope, which is just heading out to the Lagrange Point now

[Ed. Note: It has now successfully arrived at LaGrange Point 2 orbit], and which aims to provide observations of some of the earliest events in the universe, including the formation of the first galaxies. It’s an insane feat of engineering, because it’s really hard to get the data on the early universe, let alone do a controlled experiment.

In the case of consciousness, the brain is comparatively accessible. It’s right here.
It’s not that small. It’s not that big.

We can give people anesthetics and consciousness goes away and then it comes back. We can give people psychedelics, and consciousness changes, and then it changes back. In some ways, consciousness is a remarkably accessible thing to study.

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Just out

Forget AI; Organoid Intelligence May Soon Power Our Computers
William A. Haseltine

Apr 28, 2023,05:27pm EDT

Johns Hopkins University have identified a new form of intelligence: organoid intelligence. A future where computers are powered by lab-grown brain cells may be closer than we could ever have imagined.

What is an organoid? Organoids are three-dimensional tissue cultures commonly derived from human pluripotent stem cells. What looks like a clump of cells can be engineered to function like a human organ, mirroring its key structural and biological characteristics. Under the right laboratory conditions, genetic instructions from donated stem cells allow organoids to self-organize and grow into any type of organ tissue, including the human brain.

Although this may sound like science-fiction, brain organoids have been used to model and study neurodegenerative diseases for nearly a decade. Emerging studies now reveal that these lab grown brain cells may be capable of learning. In fact, a research team from Melbourne recently reported that they trained 800,000 brain cells to perform the computer game, Pong (see video). As this field of research continues to grow, researchers speculate that this so-called “intelligence in a dish” may be able to outcompete artificial intelligence.

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NIH scientists take totally tubular journey through brain cells

Study may advance understanding of how brain cell tubes are modified under normal and disease conditions.

Brain cell tubes.
Brain cell tubes873×544 51.5 KB
Fantastic Voyage. NIH scientists watched the inside of brain cell tubes, called microtubules, get tagged by a protein called TAT. Tagging is a critical process in the health and development of nerve cells.Roll-Mecak lab, NINDS, Bethesda, MD

In a new study, scientists at the National Institutes of Health took a molecular-level journey into microtubules, the hollow cylinders inside brain cells that act as skeletons and internal highways. They watched how a protein called tubulin acetyltransferase (TAT) labels the inside of microtubules. The results, published in Cell, answer long-standing questions about how TAT tagging works and offer clues as to why it is important for brain health.

Microtubules are constantly tagged by proteins in the cell to designate them for specialized functions, in the same way that roads are labeled for fast or slow traffic or for maintenance. TAT coats specific locations inside the microtubules with a chemical called an acetyl group. How the various labels are added to the cellular microtubule network remains a mystery. Recent findings suggested that problems with tagging microtubules may lead to some forms of cancer and nervous system disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, and have been linked to a rare blinding disorder and Joubert Syndrome, an uncommon brain development disorder.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to peer inside microtubules and catch TAT in action,” said Antonina Roll-Mecak, Ph.D., an investigator at the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Bethesda, Maryland, and the leader of the study.

Microtubules are found in all of the body’s cells. They are assembled like building blocks, using a protein called tubulin. Microtubules are constructed first by aligning tubulin building blocks into long strings. Then the strings align themselves side by side to form a sheet. Eventually the sheet grows wide enough that it closes up into a cylinder. TAT then bonds an acetyl group to alpha tubulin, a subunit of the tubulin protein.

Some microtubules are short-lived and can rapidly change lengths by adding or removing tubulin pieces along one end, whereas others remain unchanged for longer times. Recognizing the difference may help cells function properly. For example, cells may send cargo along stable microtubules and avoid ones that are being rebuilt. Cells appear to use a variety of chemical labels to describe the stability of microtubules.

“Our study uncovers how TAT may help cells distinguish between stable microtubules and ones that are under construction,” said Dr. Roll-Mecak. According to Dr. Roll-Mecak, high levels of microtubule tagging are unique to nerve cells and may be the reason that they have complex shapes allowing them to make elaborate connections in the brain.

For decades scientists knew that the insides of long-lived microtubules were often tagged with acetyl groups by TAT. Changes in acetylation may influence the health of nerve cells. Some studies have shown that blocking this form of microtubule tagging leads to nerve defects, brain abnormalities or degeneration of nerve fibers. Since the discovery of microtubule acetylation, scientists have been puzzled about how TAT accesses the inside of the microtubules and how the tagging reaction happens.

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I believe that consciousness is no more than an evolved response-ability to sensory and biochemical stimulus.

When a Mimosa or a Venus flytrap reacts to an external disturbance is that an expression of sensory awareness?

At what point does an organism experiencing a biochemical response become conscious of that response? Is that not just another example of evolutionary refinement of a basic chemical interaction.

Autocatalytic chemical networks at the origin of metabolism
Joana C. Xavier, Wim Hordijk, Stuart Kauffman, Mike Steel, and William F. Martin
Published:11 March 2020

Abstract
Cells are autocatalytic in that they require themselves for reproduction. The origin of the first cells from the elements on the early Earth roughly 4 billion years ago [1–4] must have been stepwise. The nature of autocatalytic systems as intermediate states in that process is of interest. Autocatalytic sets are simpler than cellular metabolism and produce copies of themselves if growth substrates for food and a source of chemical energy for thermodynamic thrust are provided [5–7].

In theory, sets of organic molecules should be able to form autocatalytic systems [8–12], which, if provided with a supply of starting ‘food’ molecules, can emerge spontaneously and proliferate via constraints imposed by substrates, catalysts, or thermodynamics [13].

Autocatalytic sets have attracted considerable interest as transitory intermediates between chemical systems and genetically encoded proteins at the origin of life [13–17]. Preliminary studies have shown that coenzymes are often required for their own synthesis and are therefore replicators with autocatalytic properties [18]. However, autocatalytic networks have not been identified in non-enzymatic metabolic networks so far, and evidence for their existence during prebiotic evolution is lacking.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.2377

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When the autocatalytic process of a metabolic function goes wrong, this activates another biochemical response of neural discomfort (pain, nausea).

Are the properties of life and consciousness not evolved refinements of sensory awareness and the production of action potentials in response to interaction of information?

Autocatalytic Networks at the Basis of Life’s Origin and Organization
Wim Hordijk1,* and Mike Steel2

Abstract
Life is more than the sum of its constituent molecules. Living systems depend on a particular chemical organization, i.e., the ways in which their constituent molecules interact and cooperate with each other through catalyzed chemical reactions. Several abstract models of minimal life, based on this idea of chemical organization and also in the context of the origin of life, were developed independently in the 1960s and 1970s.
These models include hypercycles, chemotons, autopoietic systems, (M,R)-systems, and autocatalytic sets. We briefly compare these various models, and then focus more specifically on the concept of autocatalytic sets and their mathematical formalization.

RAF theory.

We argue that autocatalytic sets are a necessary (although not sufficient) condition for life-like behavior. We then elaborate on the suggestion that simple inorganic molecules like metals and minerals may have been the earliest catalysts in the formation of prebiotic autocatalytic sets, and how RAF theory may also be applied to systems beyond chemistry, such as ecology, economics, and cognition.
Keywords: autocatalytic sets, chemical organization, RAF theory, origin of life
Autocatalytic Networks at the Basis of Life’s Origin and Organization - PMC

It seems to me that sensory awareness is a highly evolved system of autocatalytic processes that is being monitored and regulated by the homeostatic control systems. It seems plausible that this process has evolved into a sensitively aware and eventual conscious experience.

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I just noticed this.
Isn’t that totally within the framework that I keep repeating,
recognizing that our consciousness is the inside reflection of our physical body dealing with itself and the environment we are embedded within?

Along with, we are evolved biological sensing creatures.

1 Like
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Continuing with our research of current science and the new world that has opened by electron miscroscopy.

Microtubule Dynamics in Mitotic Spindle Displayed by Polarized Light Microscopy

The first sequence shows an endosperm cell from the African blood lily, Haemanthus katherinae, undergoing mitosis (Figure 1). This sequence, captured by A.S. Bajer and J. Molé-Bajer using phase-contrast microscopy, was observed in cells that had been flattened between a layer of agar and gelatin to improve their visibility (Bajer and Molè-Bajer, 1956, 1986). The sequence vividly displays the chromosomes as they condense and align on the metaphase plate (Figure1b). In the meantime the three large, dark nucleoli (Figure 1a) disappear. Then the chromosomes split and move apart in anaphase (Figure 1c). Finally the chromosomes become decondensed as they are packaged into two daughter nuclei in telophase (Figure 1d). Between the nuclei, small dancing vesicles appear (Figure 1c), align, and fuse with each other to form the cell plate (Figure 1d). The cell plate eventually gives rise to the cell walls and separates the plant cell into two.

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Fig. 1. Mitosis and cell plate formation in a flattened endosperm cell of the African blood lily, Haemanthus katherinae, observed with phase contrast microscopy.

In the next sequence, we see the pollen mother cell of an Easter lily,Lilium longiflorum, undergoing mitosis and cell division (Figure 2). These cells synchronously undergo the first of their two divisions to form four pollen grains when the flower bud is exactly 22.4 mm long (Figure3). A bud of this length was collected and centrifuged at ∼1800 × g for 3 min to displace the highly light-scattering granules and to make the other contents of the cell more visible. After excising an anther from the centrifuged flower bud in seven-eighths-strength frog Ringer’s solution, the cells were observed between crossed polarizers in the presence of a compensator (Figure 4). Observed with a polarizing microscope in this manner, regions of the cell where molecules are regularly aligned, i.e., birefringent regions, become highlighted (Figures 2, 5, and 6).

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Fig. 2. Mitosis and cell plate formation in centrifuged pollen mother cell of the Easter lily, Lilium longiflorum, observed with polarization microscopy. Reproduced from The Journal of Cell Biology, vol 130, 687–700, 1995, by copyright permission of The Rockefeller University Press.

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Fig. 3. Length of flower bud of Lilium longiflorum in which pollen mother cells undergo their first division (after Erickson, 1948).

The polarizing microscope view of the pollen mother cells distinctly shows the spindle fibers that were not visible with phase-contrast microscopy (for polarizing microscope images of Haemanthusendosperm cells, see Inoué and Bajer, 1961; Inoué, 1964). Phase-contrast microscopy clearly shows the chromosome and nucleoli because of their higher refractive index, but not the spindle fibers that lead the chromosomes apart to the spindle poles or the phragmoplast fibers that bring the vacuoles to the cell plate. The refractive index of these fibers is too close to that of the surrounding cytoplasm. They nevertheless show clearly in a well-tuned polarizing microscope, because the fibers are birefringent, being made up of a bundle of regularly aligned molecular filaments. This sequence, taken by Inoué in 1950, demonstrated, for the very first time, the reality of spindle fibers and fibrils in living cells (Inoué, 1953, 1964) as well as the highly dynamic, labile nature of the molecular filaments (later identified as microtubules).

The microtubules disassembled reversibly when cells were exposed to cold, to high hydrostatic pressure, or to antimitotic drugs such as colchicine (reviewed in Inoué, 1964, 1981). During slow depolymerization of microtubules by these agents, metaphase-arrested chromosomes were pulled to a spindle pole anchored to the cell surface. After removal of the depolymerizing agent, growing spindle fibers pushed the chromosomes toward the metaphase plate. Thus arose the notion that chromosome movement toward the metaphase plate was associated with (and powered by) assembly and growth of microtubules, whereas movement of the chromosomes toward the spindle poles was associated with (and powered by) disassembly and shortening of the microtubules attached to the kinetochore of each sister chromosome (recent evidence and discussions summarized in Inouéand Salmon, 1995).

These polarized light microscopy studies on the birefringence of dividing cells demonstrated the assembly properties of microtubules and their dynamic function in living cells long before microtubules themselves were discovered or their assembly properties were characterized in vitro (reviewed in Inoué, 1981).
https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.9.7.1603

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Fig. 5. Primary spermatocyte of Pardalophora apiculata observed with a rectified polarizing microscope (fromNicklas, 1971). Reproduced from Advances in Cell Biology , vol 2, 225–298, copyright 1971 Appleton-Century-Crofts.

https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.9.7.1603