Spatiotemporal Communication in Artificial Cell Consortia for Dynamic Control of DNA Nanostructures

[EN] The spatiotemporal orchestration of cellular processes is a ubiquitous phenomenon in pluricellular organisms and bacterial communities, where sender cells secrete chemical signals that activate specific pathways in distant receivers. Despite its importance, the engineering and investigation of spatiotemporal communication in artificial cell consortia remains underexplored. In this study, we present spatiotemporal communication between cellular-scale entities acting as both senders and receivers. The transmitted signals are leveraged to elicit conformational alterations within compartmentalized DNA structures. Specifically, sender entities control and generate diffusive chemical signals, namely, variations in pH, through the conversion of biomolecular inputs. In the receiver population, compartmentalized DNA nanostructures exhibit changes in conformation, transitioning between triplex and duplex assemblies, in response to this pH variation. We demonstrate the temporal regulation of activated DNA nanostructures through the coordinated action of two antagonistic sender populations. Furthermore, we illustrate the transient distance-dependent activation of the receivers, facilitated by sender populations situated at defined spatial locations. Collectively, our findings provide novel avenues for the design of artificial cell consortia endowed with programmable spatiotemporal dynamics through chemical communication. The authors would like to acknowledge the support from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science (Gravitation programs 024.001.035, 024.003.013, 024.005.020 - Interactive Polymer Materials IPM, and the Spinoza premium), ERC Advanced Grant (Artisym 694120), ERC Advanced Grant Edison (101052997), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, AEI, and FEDER-EU (project PID2021-126304OB-C41), and the GVA (Project CIPROM/2021/007). A.L.-L. acknowledges support from the MSCA Cofund project oLife, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Grant Agreement 847675. A.L.-L. thanks the Spanish Government for his "Ramon y Cajal" Fellowship (RYC2021-034728-I), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union >/>. A.L-L. also thanks the UPV for funding (Ayuda para potenciar la investigacion postdoctoral de la UPV (PAID-PD-22), Ayuda a Primeros Proyectos de Investigacion (PAID-06-22), Vicerrectorado de Investigacion de la Universitat Po