Bringing the genetically minimal cell to life on a computer in 4D

We present a whole-cell spatial and kinetic model for the ∼100 min cell cycle of the genetically minimal bacterium JCVI-syn3A. We simulate the complete cell cycle in 4D (space and time), including all genetic information processes, metabolic networks, growth, and cell division. By integrating hybrid computational methods, we model the dynamics of morphological transformations. Growth is driven by insertion of lipids and membrane proteins and constrained by fluorescence imaging data. Chromosome replication and segregation are controlled by the essential structural maintenance of chromosome proteins, analogous to condensin (SMC) and topoisomerase proteins in Brownian dynamics simulations, with replication rates…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• NN
  Novo Nordisk Fonden
• BI
  Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign