2017/07/10 by Fabio Giavazzi, Chiara Malinverno, Salvatore Corallino +3 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Collective behavior #Flocking (texture) #Micro and Nano Robotics #Microtubule and mitosis dynamics #Mitosis #Monolayer #Motility #Regulator #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa7f8e
published as 2017 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 384003
arxiv created 2017/07/10 · openalex publication_date 2017/07/13 · openalex created_date 2017/07/21 · arxiv updated 2017/10/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Epithelial cells cultured in a monolayer are very motile in isolation but reach a near-jammed state when mitotic division increases their number above a critical threshold. We have recently shown that a monolayer can be reawakened by over-expression of a single protein, RAB5A, a master regulator of endocytosis. This reawakening of motility was explained in terms of a flocking transition that promotes the emergence of a large-scale collective migratory pattern. Here we focus on the impact of this reawakening on the structural properties of the monolayer. We find that the unjammed monolayer is characterised by a fluidisation at the single cell level, and by enhanced non-equilibrium large-scale number fluctuations at a larger length scale. Also, with the help of numerical simulations, we trace back the origin of these fluctuations to the self-propelled active nature of the constituents, and to the existence of a local alignment mechanism, leading to the spontaneous breaking of the orientational symmetry.