IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0184706.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A microtubule-based minimal model for spontaneous and persistent spherical cell polarity

Author

Listed:
  • Panayiotis Foteinopoulos
  • Bela M Mulder

Abstract

We propose a minimal model for the spontaneous and persistent generation of polarity in a spherical cell based on dynamic microtubules and a single mobile molecular component. This component, dubbed the polarity factor, binds to microtubules nucleated from a centrosome located in the center of the cell, is subsequently delivered to the cell membrane, where it diffuses until it unbinds. The only feedback mechanism we impose is that the residence time of the microtubules at the membrane increases with the local density of the polarity factor. We show analytically that this system supports a stable unipolar symmetry-broken state for a wide range of parameters. We validate the predictions of the model by 2D particle-based simulations. Our model provides a route towards the creation of polarity in a minimal cell-like environment using a biochemical reconstitution approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Panayiotis Foteinopoulos & Bela M Mulder, 2017. "A microtubule-based minimal model for spontaneous and persistent spherical cell polarity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0184706
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184706
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0184706
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0184706&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0184706?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mikiya Otsuji & Shuji Ishihara & Carl Co & Kozo Kaibuchi & Atsushi Mochizuki & Shinya Kuroda, 2007. "A Mass Conserved Reaction–Diffusion System Captures Properties of Cell Polarity," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(6), pages 1-15, June.
    2. Steven J. Altschuler & Sigurd B. Angenent & Yanqin Wang & Lani F. Wu, 2008. "On the spontaneous emergence of cell polarity," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7206), pages 886-889, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alexandra Jilkine & Sigurd B Angenent & Lani F Wu & Steven J Altschuler, 2011. "A Density-Dependent Switch Drives Stochastic Clustering and Polarization of Signaling Molecules," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-11, November.
    2. Changji Shi & Chuan-Hsiang Huang & Peter N Devreotes & Pablo A Iglesias, 2013. "Interaction of Motility, Directional Sensing, and Polarity Modules Recreates the Behaviors of Chemotaxing Cells," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-17, July.
    3. James C Schaff & Fei Gao & Ye Li & Igor L Novak & Boris M Slepchenko, 2016. "Numerical Approach to Spatial Deterministic-Stochastic Models Arising in Cell Biology," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-23, December.
    4. Fridtjof Brauns & Leila Iñigo de la Cruz & Werner K.-G. Daalman & Ilse Bruin & Jacob Halatek & Liedewij Laan & Erwin Frey, 2023. "Redundancy and the role of protein copy numbers in the cell polarization machinery of budding yeast," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Michael Pablo & Samuel A Ramirez & Timothy C Elston, 2018. "Particle-based simulations of polarity establishment reveal stochastic promotion of Turing pattern formation," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-25, March.
    6. Wolfgang Giese & Jan Philipp Albrecht & Olya Oppenheim & Emir Bora Akmeriç & Julia Kraxner & Deborah Schmidt & Kyle Harrington & Holger Gerhardt, 2025. "Polarity-JaM: an image analysis toolbox for cell polarity, junction and morphology quantification," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Michael Trogdon & Brian Drawert & Carlos Gomez & Samhita P Banavar & Tau-Mu Yi & Otger Campàs & Linda R Petzold, 2018. "The effect of cell geometry on polarization in budding yeast," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-22, June.
    8. Brian Drawert & Andreas Hellander & Ben Bales & Debjani Banerjee & Giovanni Bellesia & Bernie J Daigle Jr. & Geoffrey Douglas & Mengyuan Gu & Anand Gupta & Stefan Hellander & Chris Horuk & Dibyendu Na, 2016. "Stochastic Simulation Service: Bridging the Gap between the Computational Expert and the Biologist," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(12), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Shi, Qingyan & Song, Yongli, 2022. "Spatiotemporal pattern formation in a pollen tube model with nonlocal effect and time delay," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1).
    10. Liming Wang & Jack Xin & Qing Nie, 2010. "A Critical Quantity for Noise Attenuation in Feedback Systems," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(4), pages 1-17, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0184706. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.