2018/11/30 by Romain Mueller, Julia M. Yeomans, Julia Yeomans +1 · 170 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Active matter #Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Chemical physics #Composite material #Condensed matter physics #Deformation (meteorology) #Instability #Isotropy #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Monolayer #Nanotechnology #Optics #Physics #Topological defect #Topology (electrical circuits) #Turbulence #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.122.048004
published in Physical Review Letters 122(4), 048004 (American Physical Society)
openalex publication_date 2019/02/01 · arxiv created 2019/02/04 · arxiv updated 2019/02/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
There is now growing evidence of the emergence and biological functionality of liquid crystal features, including nematic order and topological defects, in cellular tissues. However, how such features that intrinsically rely on particle elongation emerge in monolayers of cells with isotropic shapes is an outstanding question. In this Letter, we present a minimal model of cellular monolayers based on cell deformation and force transmission at the cell-cell interface that explains the formation of topological defects and captures the flow-field and stress patterns around them. By including mechanical properties at the individual cell level, we further show that the instability that drives the formation of topological defects, and leads to active turbulence, emerges from a feedback between shape deformation and active driving. The model allows us to suggest new explanations for experimental observations in tissue mechanics, and to propose designs for future experiments.