TY - JOUR
T1 - Cellular Sensing Governs the Stability of Chemotactic Fronts
AU - Alert, Ricard
AU - Martínez-Calvo, Alejandro
AU - Datta, Sujit S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by the Max Planck Society.
PY - 2022/4/8
Y1 - 2022/4/8
N2 - In contexts ranging from embryonic development to bacterial ecology, cell populations migrate chemotactically along self-generated chemical gradients, often forming a propagating front. Here, we theoretically show that the stability of such chemotactic fronts to morphological perturbations is determined by limitations in the ability of individual cells to sense and thereby respond to the chemical gradient. Specifically, cells at bulging parts of a front are exposed to a smaller gradient, which slows them down and promotes stability, but they also respond more strongly to the gradient, which speeds them up and promotes instability. We predict that this competition leads to chemotactic fingering when sensing is limited at too low chemical concentrations. Guided by this finding and by experimental data on E. coli chemotaxis, we suggest that the cells' sensory machinery might have evolved to avoid these limitations and ensure stable front propagation. Finally, as sensing of any stimuli is necessarily limited in living and active matter in general, the principle of sensing-induced stability may operate in other types of directed migration such as durotaxis, electrotaxis, and phototaxis.
AB - In contexts ranging from embryonic development to bacterial ecology, cell populations migrate chemotactically along self-generated chemical gradients, often forming a propagating front. Here, we theoretically show that the stability of such chemotactic fronts to morphological perturbations is determined by limitations in the ability of individual cells to sense and thereby respond to the chemical gradient. Specifically, cells at bulging parts of a front are exposed to a smaller gradient, which slows them down and promotes stability, but they also respond more strongly to the gradient, which speeds them up and promotes instability. We predict that this competition leads to chemotactic fingering when sensing is limited at too low chemical concentrations. Guided by this finding and by experimental data on E. coli chemotaxis, we suggest that the cells' sensory machinery might have evolved to avoid these limitations and ensure stable front propagation. Finally, as sensing of any stimuli is necessarily limited in living and active matter in general, the principle of sensing-induced stability may operate in other types of directed migration such as durotaxis, electrotaxis, and phototaxis.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.148101
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.148101
M3 - Article
C2 - 35476484
AN - SCOPUS:85128752597
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 128
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 14
M1 - 148101
ER -