2017/06/30 by Eduardo P. Olimpio, Yiteng Dang, Hyun Youk · 29 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Computer science #Diffusion and Search Dynamics #Dynamics (music) #Gene Regulatory Network Analysis #Order (exchange) #Physics #Statistical physics #cond-mat.stat-mech #nlin.CG #q-bio.QM #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2018.03.013
published in iScience 2, 27-40 (Cell Press)
arxiv created 2017/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2018/04/01 · arxiv updated 2018/06/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Communicating cells can coordinate their gene expressions to form spatial patterns, generating order from disorder. Ubiquitous "secrete-and-sense cells" secrete and sense the same molecule to do so. Here we present a modeling framework-based on cellular automata and mimicking approaches of statistical mechanics-for understanding how secrete-and-sense cells with bistable gene expression, from disordered beginnings, can become spatially ordered by communicating through rapidly diffusing molecules. Classifying lattices of cells by two "macrostate" variables-"spatial index," measuring degree of order, and average gene-expression level-reveals a conceptual picture: a group of cells behaves as a single particle, in an abstract space, that rolls down on an adhesive "pseudo-energy landscape" whose shape is determined by cell-cell communication and an intracellular gene-regulatory circuit. Particles rolling down the landscape represent cells becoming more spatially ordered. We show how to extend this framework to more complex forms of cellular communication.