ArticleNature communications2021
C. elegans colony formation as a condensation phenomenon.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cell-specific Cahn-Hilliard models predict condensed fates of the chromosomal passenger complex.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- From Networks to Traveling Waves and Back: Persistent Pattern Generation Across Collective Phases inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- How does cytoplasmic crowding affect reaction rates?Molecular cell · 2026Review
- Cahn-Hilliard dynamical models for condensed biomolecular systems.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- On collective behavior inFrontiers in neurorobotics · 2025Review
- Article
- A PINK1 input threshold arises from positive feedback in the PINK1/Parkin mitophagy decision circuit.Cell reports · 2023Article
- Phase-separation physics underlies new theory for the resilience of patchy ecosystems.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Article
- Cytoplasmic organization promotes protein diffusion in Xenopus extracts.Nature communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Phase separation at the molecular scale affects many biological processes. The theoretical requirements for phase separation are fairly minimal, and there is growing evidence that analogous phenomena occur at other scales in biology. Here we examine colony formation in the nematode C. elegans as a possible example of phase separation by a population of organisms. The population density of worms determines whether a colony will form in a thresholded fashion, and a simple two-compartment ordinary differential equation model correctly predicts the threshold. Furthermore, small, round colonies sometimes fuse to form larger, round colonies, and a phenomenon akin to Ostwald ripening - a coarsening process seen in many systems that undergo phase separation - also occurs. These findings support the emerging view that the principles of microscopic phase separation can also apply to collective behaviors of living organisms.
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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.