Periodic Migration in a Physical Model of Cells on Micropatterns

Condensed Matter journal club

Periodic Migration in a Physical Model of Cells on Micropatterns

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 22nd November 2013
  • Speaker: Giovanni Brandani (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

We extend a model for the morphology and dynamics of a crawling eukaryotic cell to describe cells on micropatterned substrates. This model couples cell morphology, adhesion, and cytoskeletal flow in response to active stresses induced by actin and myosin. We propose that protrusive stresses are only generated where the cell adheres, leading to the cell's effective confinement to the pattern. Consistent with experimental results, simulated cells exhibit a broad range of behaviors, including steady motion, turning, bipedal motion, and periodic migration, in which the cell crawls persistently in one direction before reversing periodically. We show that periodic motion emerges naturally from the coupling of cell polarization to cell shape by reducing the model to a simplified one-dimensional form that can be understood analytically.
PRL 111 article 158102 (2103)
pdf version There is supplimentary information at supplimentary info

Authors

Brian A. Camley, Yanxiang Zhao, Bo Li, Herbert Levine, Wouter-Jan Rappel

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