Active gel model of onset of the movement in one-dimensional cell motility

Yuan-Heng Tseng^1*, Hsuan-Yi Chen^1,2

¹Department of Physics, National Central University, Zhongli, Taiwan
²Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taiwan

* Presenter:Yuan-Heng Tseng, email:a55664389@gmail.com

To understand how the intracellular mechanical mechanism affects the motion of a cell, we develop a one-dimensional model for cell migration on a solid substrate. This model includes contractile force from actomyosin network, viscous stress in the cytoskeleton, actin polymerization at the ends of the cell, drag force due to substrate and drag force due to cell-substrate bonds. Our numerical solutions show that in addition to the contractility, polymerization-cell-movement feedback, and spontaneous symmetry breaking in the distribution of cell-substrate bonds helps to initiate cell crawling. This is illustrated by phase diagrams for static and motile states.

Keywords: Biophysics, Soft Matter, Cell Movement