title: Periodic migration in a physical model of cells on micropatterns.
abstract: We extend a model for the morphology and dynamics of a crawling eukaryotic cell to describe cells on micropatterned substrates. This model couples cell morphology, adhesion, and cytoskeletal flow in response to active stresses induced by actin and myosin. We propose that protrusive stresses are only generated where the cell adheres, leading to the cell's effective confinement to the pattern. Consistent with experimental results, simulated cells exhibit a broad range of behaviors, including steady motion, turning, bipedal motion, and periodic migration, in which the cell crawls persistently in one direction before reversing periodically. We show that periodic motion emerges naturally from the coupling of cell polarization to cell shape by reducing the model to a simplified one-dimensional form that can be understood analytically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA and Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Camley
authors.forename: Yanxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Wouter-Jan
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Rappel
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000502:physiology; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009218:Myosins / Q000378:metabolism; D010507:Periodicity
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D009218:Myosins