Evolving plastic responses in artificial cell models

John Maher, Fearghal Morgan, Oisin Mac Aodha

Abstract: Two variants of biologically inspired cell model, namely eukaryotic (containing a nucleus) and prokaryotic (without a nucleus) are compared in this research. The comparison investigates their relative evolvability and ability to integrate external environmental stimulus to direct protein pattern formation within a single cell. To the authors' knowledge there has been no reported work comparing the relative performance of eukaryotic and prokaryotic artificial cells models. We propose a novel system of protein translocation for eukaryotic cells based on the process of nucleocytoplasmic transport observed in biological cells. Results demonstrate that eukaryotic cell models exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity to environmental variations compared with prokaryotes. Based on these results we conclude that the process of transporting proteins to and from the nucleus plays a key role in shaping eukaryotic cell plasticity.