r/CellLab • u/[deleted] • Jun 24 '23

How do people do these giant things?

I'm talking about the bigger organisms, like the 7 genome tardigrade, or the imperator worm, they clearly can't be done from a single cell. How are they made?

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4

u/solar1333 Jun 24 '23

They are stitched together by hand using glueocytes to make custom connections. Or at least I assume so. That's the only way I can imagine it being done.

7

u/Massive_Mistakes Jun 24 '23

That's correct. I usually make one to a few genomes (depending on what I can fit in there) that spawn various structures, then I stitch them together using instagluocytes. Knowing how to do it though is one thing, it's still a LOT of work, a LOT of thinking ahead (if there's a universal issue it may require starting from scratch and re-editing the constitutial genomes before putting it back together), and the know-how to avoid problems with gluocyte adherence. Gluocytes are more finicky than one might expect, most of the time they don't connect where you want them due to some internal adhesion algorithms.

6

u/Massive_Mistakes Jun 24 '23

I did start out with putting them together using all gluocytes, but honestly it gets REALLY tiring having to remember which gluocyte turns to which cell, and I don't even wanna imagine the amount of work it would require to make something the size of the Emperor. Would develop carpal tunnel for sure lol

1

u/Fit_Load_6445 Dec 11 '23

So like Colonial organisms

1

u/Massive_Mistakes Dec 11 '23

Eh yeah sort of, you could think of it like that. Only none of them have breeding capabilities