Repulsive particle interactions enable selective information processing at cellular interfaces
Statistical Mechanics
2025-12-29 v2 Biological Physics
Abstract
Living systems relay information across membrane interfaces to coordinate compartment functions. We identify a physical mechanism for selective information transmission that arises from the sigmoidal response of surface-bound particle densities to spatial features in adjacent external structures through a non-uniform binding energy. This mechanism implements a form of spatial thresholding, enabling the binary classification of external cues. Expansion microscopy measurements of nuclear pore complex distributions in S. arctica show signatures of such physical thresholding.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2506.14739,
title = {Repulsive particle interactions enable selective information processing at cellular interfaces},
author = {Jenna Elliott and Hiral Shah and Roman Belousov and Gautam Dey and Anna Erzberger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.14739},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
23 pages, 6 figures