Physical model of cellular symmetry breaking

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Generation of Aggregates of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells that Show Symmetry Breaking, Polarization and Emergent Collective Behaviour In Vitro
11:37

Generation of Aggregates of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells that Show Symmetry Breaking, Polarization and Emergent Collective Behaviour In Vitro

Published on: November 24, 2015

Jasper van der Gucht1, Cécile Sykes

  • 1Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Colloid Science, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology
|January 13, 2010
PubMed

More Related Videos

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality08:07

A Micropatterning Assay for Measuring Cell Chirality

Published on: March 11, 2022

The Mechanics of (Poro-)Elastic Contractile Actomyosin Networks As a Model System of the Cell Cytoskeleton08:50

The Mechanics of (Poro-)Elastic Contractile Actomyosin Networks As a Model System of the Cell Cytoskeleton

Published on: March 10, 2023

Related Concept Videos

Determining the Plane of Cell Division02:13

Determining the Plane of Cell Division

Positioning the cell division plane is a critical step during development and cell differentiation, particularly during mitosis when the plane is essential for determining the size of the two daughter cells. The cell division plane is perpendicular to the plane of chromosome segregation, but different types of organisms have different cell division mechanisms to suit their morphology and function. 
Animal cells
In animal cells, the cleavage furrow forms along the plane of cell division starting...
Determining the Plane of Cell Division02:13

Determining the Plane of Cell Division

Positioning the cell division plane is a critical step during development and cell differentiation, particularly during mitosis when the plane is essential for determining the size of the two daughter cells. The cell division plane is perpendicular to the plane of chromosome segregation, but different types of organisms have different cell division mechanisms to suit their morphology and function. 
Animal cells
In animal cells, the cleavage furrow forms along the plane of cell division starting...
The Contractile Ring02:15

The Contractile Ring

Contractile rings are composed of microfilaments and are responsible for separating the daughter cells during cytokinesis. Contractile ring assembly proceeds along with other cell cycle events; however, very few mechanistic details are known about the timing and coordination of the contractile rings with the cell cycle.
A small GTPase, RhoA, controls the function and assembly of the contractile ring. RhoA belongs to the Ras superfamily of proteins. The activation of formins by RhoA promotes...
Cell Motility through Blebbing01:16

Cell Motility through Blebbing

Blebs are a type of membrane protrusion formed by the internal hydrostatic pressure of the cytoplasm. Blebs are observed in several cell types, including fibroblasts, immune cells, and single-celled organisms like the amoeba. The primary function of blebs is cell locomotion and apoptosis, but they are also found during necrosis and cell division. The life cycle of a bleb comprises an initiation phase followed by the expansion and retraction phases.
Blebbing Through the Matrix
In multicellular...
Symmetry Elements in a Crystal01:27

Symmetry Elements in a Crystal

Crystal symmetry operations are isometric transformations that map objects onto indistinguishable copies while preserving distances, angles, and volumes. The simplest symmetry operation is translation, which shifts the entire infinite crystal lattice parallelly by a translation vector.Crystallographic rotations involve rotations by an angle of 2π/n around an axis without changing the positions of points on the axis. It is called the rotational axis of the symmetry, denoted by n. The combination...
Distribution of Cytoplasmic Content02:33

Distribution of Cytoplasmic Content

Cytokinesis segregates a cell’s chromosomes and organelles into its daughter cells. Organelles divide and grow prior to cell division but cannot be synthesized de novo; therefore, cells must receive at least one copy of each organelle to survive. Currently, many of the details of how the organelles are distributed are not yet fully elucidated.
Distribution of cytoplasmic determinants
The cytoplasm contains various organelles, as well as salts, proteins, and water. The distribution of small...