ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Cytoskeleton/Cytocomputer 119
parallel microtubules and form a short cylinder with the same outer diameter and
nine fold symmetry as cilia, flagella and centrioles. It has been clearly shown that
ciliary mechanisms can function without influence from the cell to which they are
attached. Flagella or cilia severed from cells by laser beams continue to propagate
normal bending movements, if the surrounding medium contains ATP and either
magnesium or calcium ions. Cilia function to move fluid over the surface of a cell
or to propel single cells through a fluid. Single cell organisms use cilia for the
collection of food particles and for locomotion. In the human lung and respiratory
tract, epithelial lining contains about a billion cilia per square centimeter which
act to sweep layers of mucous, trapped particles, and dead cells towards the
mouth where they may be coughed up or swallowed. The cilia bend in
coordinated unidirectional waves in which each cilium moves as a tiny whip.
There is a forward stroke in which the cilium is extended and exerts maximal
force on the surrounding liquid medium, followed by a recovery phase when it
returns to its initial position. The movement is a rolling motion which minimizes
viscous drag and requires about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds. Cycles of adjacent cilia are not
quite in synchrony, and the small delay produces wave-like patterns of the entire
ciliary complex. Simple flagella of sperm and single cell organisms are much like
large cilia in their internal structure but are usually longer and propagate in quasisinusoidal
waves rather than faster whip-like movements. The mechanism of
flagellar beating in eukaryotes (but not of bacteria) is very similar to that of cilia.
Muscle contraction, axoplasmic transport, and ciliary and flagella motion all
occur by the contractile bending of sidearm proteins attached along cytoskeletal
filaments. In the case of muscle contraction, the stable cytoskeletal filaments are
myosin with appendages called myosin heads crawling along parallel actin
filaments. In the case of axoplasmic transport and ciliary and flagellar bending,
microtubules are the stable filaments from which dynein contractile sidearms
crawl or row along other MT (in the case of cilia and flagella), or pass along
material or vesicles (in the case of axoplasmic transport). The energy for all of
these mechanisms is supplied by the hydrolysis of ATP, but its precise utilization,
transfer of conformational states and the temporal orchestration required to
control these sidearm appendages are unknown. Figure 5.25 shows one possible
cooperative control mechanism in which a wave of tubulin conformational states
(soliton) travels along the MT cylindrical surface lattice to trigger the dynein
activities.
5.5.4 Geodesic Tensegrity Gels
Actin-myosin contraction also occurs in non-muscle cells. Soon after actin
and myosin were identified in muscle, Loewy found that extracts of slime mold
cytoplasm responded to ATP with a decrease in viscosity. He hypothesized that
ATP provided chemical energy which was converted into mechanical work
required for slime mold locomotion. After H. E. Huxley and colleagues at
University College London showed that muscle contraction was achieved by ATP
dependent sliding of actin and myosin filaments past one another, Hatano and
Osawa at Nagoya purified actin from slime mold. Subsequent investigations
turned up myriads of cytomatrix proteins including myosin which were related to
contractility and its regulation (Lazarides and Revel, 1979).
Using fluorescent antibodies to “light up” specific proteins, Lazarides and
Revel (1979) have observed actin filaments organized into strikingly regular
networks looking remarkably like geodesic domes. They describe icosahedral
geodesic networks that encompass the area above and around cell nuclei and other
cell regions after the cells are treated with fluorescent antibodies illuminating
actin, alpha actinin and tropomyosin. Alpha actinin is localized primarily at the