RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Long-term memory in the migration movements of enucleated Amoeba proteus JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 125054 DO 10.1101/125054 A1 Carlos Bringas A1 Iker Malaina A1 Alberto Pérez-Samartín A1 María Dolores Boyano A1 María Fedetz A1 Gorka Pérez-Yarza A1 Jesus M. Cortes A1 Ildefonso M. De la Fuente YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/20/125054.abstract AB How motile, free unicellular organisms maximize the rate at which they encounter resources and develop optimal search strategies remains largely unknown. In fact, cell foraging is a very complex activity in which unicellular organisms integrate a diversity of external cues and develop efficient systemic movements to localize nourishment. These foraging strategies are critical when cells face conditions of scarce resources or they don’t possess information on where food is located. Here, in order to determine whether nuclear activity is directly involved in cell migration, we placed single, well-isolated, enucleated and non-enucleated starved Amoeba proteus on nutrient-free petri dishes, and we then analyzed their trajectories of movement using non-linear dynamic tools. We found that despite being enucleated, the systemic responses of the protoplasm exhibited typical biological behaviors, moving with apparent normality, creeping along the substrate, developing pseudopodia and gobbling up prey. Our quantitative studies show that both the non-enucleated and enucleated amoebas display a similar migration structure, characterized by super-diffusivity, non-trivial long-term correlations and move-step fluctuations with scale invariant properties. In conclusion, the nuclear activity does not seem to directly control the systemic cellular movements involved in locating sparse resources.