Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells.
Chemotaxis involves the coordinated action of separable but interrelated processes: motility, gradient sensing, and polarization. We have hypothesized that these are mediated by separate modules that account for these processes individually and that, when combined, recreate most of the behaviors of...
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doaj-9e877a84131a43c8a9f83b8b84e322b42020-11-25T02:20:15ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Computational Biology1553-734X1553-73582013-01-0197e100312210.1371/journal.pcbi.1003122Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells.Changji ShiChuan-Hsiang HuangPeter N DevreotesPablo A IglesiasChemotaxis involves the coordinated action of separable but interrelated processes: motility, gradient sensing, and polarization. We have hypothesized that these are mediated by separate modules that account for these processes individually and that, when combined, recreate most of the behaviors of chemotactic cells. Here, we describe a mathematical model where the modules are implemented in terms of reaction-diffusion equations. Migration and the accompanying changes in cellular morphology are demonstrated in simulations using a mechanical model of the cell cortex implemented in the level set framework. The central module is an excitable network that accounts for random migration. The response to combinations of uniform stimuli and gradients is mediated by a local excitation, global inhibition module that biases the direction in which excitability is directed. A polarization module linked to the excitable network through the cytoskeleton allows unstimulated cells to move persistently and, for cells in gradients, to gradually acquire distinct sensitivity between front and back. Finally, by varying the strengths of various feedback loops in the model we obtain cellular behaviors that mirror those of genetically altered cell lines.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3701696?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Changji Shi Chuan-Hsiang Huang Peter N Devreotes Pablo A Iglesias |
spellingShingle |
Changji Shi Chuan-Hsiang Huang Peter N Devreotes Pablo A Iglesias Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. PLoS Computational Biology |
author_facet |
Changji Shi Chuan-Hsiang Huang Peter N Devreotes Pablo A Iglesias |
author_sort |
Changji Shi |
title |
Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
title_short |
Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
title_full |
Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
title_fullStr |
Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
title_sort |
interaction of motility, directional sensing, and polarity modules recreates the behaviors of chemotaxing cells. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS Computational Biology |
issn |
1553-734X 1553-7358 |
publishDate |
2013-01-01 |
description |
Chemotaxis involves the coordinated action of separable but interrelated processes: motility, gradient sensing, and polarization. We have hypothesized that these are mediated by separate modules that account for these processes individually and that, when combined, recreate most of the behaviors of chemotactic cells. Here, we describe a mathematical model where the modules are implemented in terms of reaction-diffusion equations. Migration and the accompanying changes in cellular morphology are demonstrated in simulations using a mechanical model of the cell cortex implemented in the level set framework. The central module is an excitable network that accounts for random migration. The response to combinations of uniform stimuli and gradients is mediated by a local excitation, global inhibition module that biases the direction in which excitability is directed. A polarization module linked to the excitable network through the cytoskeleton allows unstimulated cells to move persistently and, for cells in gradients, to gradually acquire distinct sensitivity between front and back. Finally, by varying the strengths of various feedback loops in the model we obtain cellular behaviors that mirror those of genetically altered cell lines. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3701696?pdf=render |
work_keys_str_mv |
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