Directional sensing of deformed cells under faint gradients.
We consider the physical limit of the directional sensing ability of living cells, as in chemotaxis, under a low concentration and shallow chemoattractant gradient. Elliptic cells sense the direction, which is a stochastic variable of a characteristic distribution with peaks at directions not necessarily to the gradient. The peak positions depend on the information of the gradient that cells use to infer the direction and also the shape and orientation of cells. Cells of different shapes may use different inference strategies to increase their directional sensing performance.
Laboratories for Physical Biology, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan.
Akinori
A
Baba
Tetsuya
T
Hiraiwa
Tatsuo
T
Shibata
D000818:Animals; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D048430:Cell Shape; D002630:Chemotactic Factors; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000502:physiology*; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000166:cytology; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016011:Normal Distribution
D002630:Chemotactic Factors