Work

Proliferating Nematic that Collectively Senses an Anisotropic Substrate

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Motivated by recent experiments on growing fibroblasts, we examine the development of nematic order in a colony of elongated cells proliferating on a nematic elastomer substrate. After sparse seeding, the cells divide and grow into locally ordered but randomly oriented domains that then interact with each other and the substrate. Global alignment with the substrate is only achieved above a critical density, suggesting a collective mechanism for the sensing of substrate anisotropy. The system jams at high density, where both reorientation and proliferation stop. Using a continuum model of a proliferating nematic liquid crystal, we examine the competition between growth-driven alignment and substrate-driven alignment in controlling the density and structure of the final jammed state. We propose that anisotropic traction forces and the tendency of cells to align perpendicular to the direction of density gradients act in concert to provide a mechanism for collective cell alignment.

Source: PRX Life

DOI: 10.1103/5nx2-fqgt

Authors: Toshi Parmar, Fridtjof Brauns, Yimin Luo, M. Cristina Marchetti

Institutions: University of California, Santa Barbara, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Yale University

Language: English

Topic: Cellular Mechanics and Interactions

Subfield: Cell Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Awards: Active Patterns in Soft and Living Matter, Collaborative Research: Elements: Scalable and Automated Learning of Active Dynamics (SALAD)