ArticleFrontiers in cell and developmental biology2020
Self-Generated Gradients Yield Exceptionally Robust Steering Cues.
Article in Frontiers in cell and developmental biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- Communication through autoattractants can enhance and limit collective migration of immune cells.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Many Cells Make Light Work: Self-Generated Gradients OrganizeCold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2026Review
- Beyond the chaos: How architecture structures tumour biology.The FEBS journal · 2026Review
- Chemical and Mechanical Regulation of Leukocyte Migration.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2026Review
- Macrophages self-generate and refine chemotactic gradients during migration towards complement C5a.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Automated decision-making by chemical echolocation in active droplets.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Cell populations simulated in silico within SimulCell accurately reproduce the behaviour of experimental cell cultures.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2025Article
- Durotaxis and extracellular matrix degradation promote the clustering of cancer cells.iScience · 2025Article
- Dynamic cluster field modeling of collective chemotaxis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Cancer cell sedimentation in 3D cultures reveals active migration regulated by self-generated gradients and adhesion sites.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Perspectives on Principles of Cellular Behavior from the Biophysics of Protists.Integrative and comparative biology · 2023Review
- Tumour follower cells: A novel driver of leader cells in collective invasion (Review).International journal of oncology · 2023Review
- Future medicine: from molecular pathways to the collective intelligence of the body.Trends in molecular medicine · 2023Review
- A self-generated Toddler gradient guides mesodermal cell migration.Science advances · 2022Article
- Autologous gradient formation under differential interstitial fluid flow environments.Biophysica · 2022Article
- Chemokines and phosphatidylserine: New binding partners for apoptotic cell clearance.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- ACKR3 promotes CXCL12/CXCR4-mediated cell-to-cell-induced lymphoma migration through LTB4 production.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework for Understanding Diverse Bodies and Minds.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2022Article
- Moving the Research Forward: The Best of British Biology Using the Tractable Model SystemCells · 2021Review
- Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chemotaxis is a widespread mechanism that allows migrating cells to steer to where they are needed. Attractant gradients may be imposed by external sources, or self-generated, when cells create their own steep local gradients by breaking down a prevalent, broadly distributed attractant. Here we show that chemotaxis works far more robustly toward self-generated gradients. Cells can only respond efficiently to a restricted range of attractant concentrations; if attractants are too dilute, their gradients are too shallow for cells to sense, but if they are too high, all receptors become saturated and cells cannot perceive spatial differences. Self-generated gradients are robust because cells maintain the attractant at optimal concentrations. A wave can recruit varying numbers of steered cells, and cells can take time to break down attractant before starting to migrate. Self-generated gradients can therefore operate over a greater range of attractant concentrations, larger distances, and longer times than imposed gradients. The robustness is further enhanced at low cell numbers if attractants also act as mitogens, and at high attractant concentrations if the enzymes that break down attractants are themselves induced by constant attractant levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.