Nonlinear Study of Symmetry Breaking in Actin Gels: Implications for Cellular Motility

John, Karin; Peyla, Philippe; Kassner, Klaus; Prost, Jacques; Misbah, Chaouqi

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.100.068101

Cited by 39 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…27,28 In our model, all this complexity is cast into four continuous two-dimensional ‡ (2D) elds: the deformable and moving interface (the cell's membrane) is described by an auxiliary phase eld [29][30][31][32] r(x, y; t) governed by an overdamped diffusive motion, cf. eqn (A.1), in a double-well model free energy.…”

Section: Brief Description Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling crawling cell movement on soft engineered substrates

2014

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Self-propelled motion, emerging spontaneously or in response to external cues, is a hallmark of living organisms. Systems of self-propelled synthetic particles are also relevant for multiple applications, from targeted drug delivery to the design of self-healing materials. Self-propulsion relies on the force transfer to the surrounding. While self-propelled swimming in the bulk of liquids is fairly well characterized, many open questions remain in our understanding of self-propelled motion along substrates, such as in the case of crawling cells or related biomimetic objects. How is the force transfer organized and how does it interplay with the deformability of the moving object and the substrate? How do the spatially dependent traction distribution and adhesion dynamics give rise to complex cell behavior? How can we engineer a specific cell response on synthetic compliant substrates? Here we generalize our recently developed model for a crawling cell by incorporating locally resolved traction forces and substrate deformations.The model captures the generic structure of the traction force distribution and faithfully reproduces experimental observations, like the response of a cell on a gradient in substrate elasticity (durotaxis). It also exhibits complex modes of cell movement such as "bipedal" motion. Our work may guide experiments on cell traction force microscopy and substrate-based cell sorting and can be helpful for the design of biomimetic "crawlers" and active and reconfigurable self-healing materials.

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Section: Brief Description Of the Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling crawling cell movement on soft engineered substrates

2014

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“…Using elasticity theory and linear flux-force relationships, a theoretical model has been built. It posits that interfacial polymerization can trigger an instability which induces spontaneous symmetry breaking [106]. In the light of work from the Schwille group [99] and the model of Lewis et al [107], myosin-mediated actin fragmentation or viscous/elastic stress originating from turnover/de-polymerization might also be possible explanations for spontaneous symmetry breaking observed experimentally in the ActA system.…”

Section: Actomyosin In Vitromentioning

confidence: 99%

Cytoskeletal Symmetry Breaking and Chirality: From Reconstituted Systems to Animal Development

Pohl

2015

Symmetry

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Animal development relies on repeated symmetry breaking, e.g., during axial specification, gastrulation, nervous system lateralization, lumen formation, or organ coiling. It is crucial that asymmetry increases during these processes, since this will generate higher morphological and functional specialization. On one hand, cue-dependent symmetry breaking is used during these processes which is the consequence of developmental signaling. On the other hand, cells isolated from developing animals also undergo symmetry breaking in the absence of signaling cues. These spontaneously arising asymmetries are not well understood. However, an ever growing body of evidence suggests that these asymmetries can originate from spontaneous symmetry breaking and self-organization of molecular assemblies into polarized entities on mesoscopic scales. Recent discoveries will be highlighted and it will be discussed how actomyosin and microtubule networks serve as common biomechanical systems with inherent abilities to drive spontaneous symmetry breaking.

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“…84 This list clearly demonstrates the method's versatility, which meanwhile has developed into a standard tool in the vast field of multiphase/composite materials. 85 In its application to cell motility, the phase-field method has been extensively reviewed in Ziebert et al 86 The main idea is the following: instead of tracing the boundary (i.e., the membrane) explicitly, which poses the problems discussed above for the sharp interface models, one uses an auxiliary field to describe the interface implicitly (see Figure 2c).…”

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confidence: 98%

Computational approaches to substrate-based cell motility

Ziebert

Aranson

2016

npj Comput Mater

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Substrate-based crawling motility of eukaryotic cells is essential for many biological functions, both in developing and mature organisms. Motility dysfunctions are involved in several life-threatening pathologies such as cancer and metastasis. Motile cells are also a natural realisation of active, self-propelled 'particles', a popular research topic in nonequilibrium physics. Finally, from the materials perspective, assemblies of motile cells and evolving tissues constitute a class of adaptive self-healing materials that respond to the topography, elasticity and surface chemistry of the environment and react to external stimuli. Although a comprehensive understanding of substrate-based cell motility remains elusive, progress has been achieved recently in its modelling on the whole-cell level. Here we survey the most recent advances in computational approaches to cell movement and demonstrate how these models improve our understanding of complex self-organised systems such as living cells.

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Nonlinear Study of Symmetry Breaking in Actin Gels: Implications for Cellular Motility

Cited by 39 publications

References 17 publications

Modeling crawling cell movement on soft engineered substrates

Modeling crawling cell movement on soft engineered substrates

Cytoskeletal Symmetry Breaking and Chirality: From Reconstituted Systems to Animal Development

Computational approaches to substrate-based cell motility

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