Cells Form Into 'Xenobots' on Their Own | 台北市立動物園資訊網

2021年3月31日—Xenobots—mobile,self-organizedclustersofembryonicfrogcellscreatedby...Theexperimentsdescribedinthepaperpublishedtodaywere ...

Jablonka thinks that most animal developmental biologists won’t be surprised by the outcome of experiments like this — but will kick themselves for not having looked for it. “They would probably say, ‘Yes, of course! Why did we not do this simple experiment before?’” she said. Solé suspects others might have accidently stumbled on similar observations, but “thought it was a mistake, or simply impossible.”

Or it might have just been overlooked — because most developmental research only aims to reveal how whole organisms or parts of them grow under normal or mildly manipulated conditions, Jablonka said. But Levin’s work has a new goal, she says: “Constructing an autonomous creature that has nothing to do with the specific form of the [original] organism.”

Xenobots normally live for about a week, subsisting on the nutrients passed down from the fertilized egg they came from. But in rare cases, by “feeding” them with the right nutrients, Levin’s team has been able to keep ...