ArticleBiophysical journal2008
Wave-pinning and cell polarity from a bistable reaction-diffusion system.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 174 papers.
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Who cites it
174 citing papers in PubMed.
- A continuum-based reaction-diffusion model for spread of gene silencing in chromosomal inactivation.RNA (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Fundamental limits on symmetry breaking by Turing-like activator-inhibitor mechanisms.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Solution landscape of reaction-diffusion systems reveals a nonlinear mechanism and spatial robustness of pattern formation.Fundamental research · 2026Article
- Long-range mutual activation establishes Rho and Rac polarity during cell migration.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Decoding cellular population dynamics through mechanistic modelling and statistical data analysis.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2026Review
- Cell cycle oscillations in a polarity network facilitate state switching by morphogenetic cues.Science advances · 2026Article
- Chemical and Mechanical Regulation of Leukocyte Migration.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2026Review
- Signal control during tissue regeneration in adult animals.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- Diversity in emergent cell locomotion from the coupling cytosolic and cortical Marangoni flows with reaction-diffusion dynamics.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Using Floquet theory to unravel far-from equilibrium dynamics in reaction-diffusion systems.PNAS nexus · 2026Article
- Investigating local negative feedback of Rac activity by mathematical models and cell-motility simulations.iScience · 2026Article
- Single-cell chiral symmetry breaking under confinement.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cell cycle oscillations in a polarity network facilitate state switching by morphogenetic cues.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Spatial distribution of cytoskeleton-mediated feedback controls cell polarization: A computational study.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- An ABA-ROP toggle switch orchestrates xylem differentiation and cell wall patterning.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Characterizing symmetry transitions in systems with dynamic morphology.Mathematical biosciences · 2025Article
- Emergence of multiple collective motility modes in a physical model of cell chains.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2025Article
- Spatial distribution of cytoskeleton-mediated feedback controls cell polarization: a computational study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Modelling the effect of cell motility on mixing and invasion in epithelial monolayers.Journal of biological physics · 2024Article
- Quantitative perturbation-phenotype maps reveal nonlinear responses underlying robustness of PAR-dependent asymmetric cell division.PLoS biology · 2024Article
114 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Motile eukaryotic cells polarize in response to external signals. Numerous mechanisms have been suggested to account for this symmetry breaking and for the ensuing robust polarization. Implicated in this process are various proteins that are recruited to the plasma membrane and segregate at an emergent front or back of the polarizing cell. Among these are PI3K, PTEN, and members of the Rho family GTPases such as Cdc42, Rac, and Rho. Many such proteins, including the Rho GTPases, cycle between active membrane-bound forms and inactive cytosolic forms. In previous work, we have shown that this property, together with appropriate crosstalk, endows a biochemical circuit (Cdc42, Rac, and Rho) with the property of inherent polarizability. Here we show that this property is present in an even simpler system comprised of a single active/inactive protein pair with positive feedback to its own activation. The simplicity of this minimal system also allows us to explain the mechanism using insights from mathematical analysis. The basic idea resides in a well-known property of reaction-diffusion systems with bistable kinetics, namely, propagation of fronts. However, it crucially depends on exchange between active and inactive forms of the chemicals with unequal rates of diffusion, and overall conservation to pin the waves into a stable polar distribution. We refer to these dynamics as wave-pinning and we show that this phenomenon is distinct from Turing-instability-generated pattern formation that occurs in reaction-diffusion systems that appear to be very similar. We explain the mathematical basis of the phenomenon, relate it to spatial segregation of Rho GTPases, and show how it can account for spatial amplification and maintenance of polarity, as well as sensitivity to new stimuli typical in polarization of eukaryotic cells.
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