Cells go fractal

Mathematical patterns rule the behaviour of molecules in the nucleus.

By Claire Ainsworth

The maths behind the rugged beauty of a coastline may help to keep cell biology in order, say researchers in Germany. Fractals — rough shapes that look the same at all scales — could explain how the cell's nucleus holds molecules that manage our DNA in the right location.

In new experiments, Sebastien Huet and Aurélien Bancaud of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, tracked the movement of molecules within cells in a lab dish, then compared the pattern of movement against mathematical models. Large molecules, they found, moved according to the same rules as small molecules — suggesting that their environment was truly fractal. The team reported their findings this week at the EMBO meeting in Amsterdam.

"It's a really interesting approach," says Angus Lamond, a cell biologist at the University of Dundee, UK. "It's very promising that the fractal model appears to be able to describe the [molecular] behaviour in this way." ...

Cells go fractal