2021/07/31 by Andrew Killeen, Thibault Bertrand, Chiu Fan Lee
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Active matter #Biology #Biophysics #Cellular Mechanics and Interactions #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Condensed matter physics #Liquid crystal #Materials science #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Physics #Polar #Soft matter #Spaceflight effects on biology #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.128.078001
published as Physical Review Letters 128, 078001 (2022) · 6 pages main text + 14 pages of Supplemental Materials. Version 2 contains new simulation and analytical results
arxiv created 2021/11/10 · openalex publication_date 2022/02/15 · arxiv updated 2022/02/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
How can a collection of motile cells, each generating contractile nematic stresses in isolation, become an extensile nematic at the tissue level? Understanding this seemingly contradictory experimental observation, which occurs irrespective of whether the tissue is in the liquid or solid states, is not only crucial to our understanding of diverse biological processes, but is also of fundamental interest to soft matter and many-body physics. Here, we resolve this cellular to tissue level disconnect in the small fluctuation regime by using analytical theories based on hydrodynamic descriptions of confluent tissues, in both liquid and solid states. Specifically, we show that a collection of microscopic constituents with no inherently nematic extensile forces can exhibit active extensile nematic behavior when subject to polar fluctuating forces. We further support our findings by performing cell level simulations of minimal models of confluent tissues.