Year: 2017
Type: article
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.
Authors: Fabio Giavazzi, Chiara Malinverno, Salvatore Corallino, Francesco Ginelli, Giorgio Scita, Roberto Cerbino
Institutions: University of Milan, IFOM, University of Aberdeen
Language: English
Subfield: Cell Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: Università degli Studi di Milano, European Commission, Fondazione Cariplo, Ministero della Salute, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Worldwide Cancer Research, Regione Lombardia, FP7 Ideas: European Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W2736110479