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Published on: December 23, 2011
Zigzag turning preference of freely crawling cells.
Taeseok Daniel Yang1, Jin-Sung Park, Youngwoon Choi
1Department of Physics, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
Plos One
|June 21, 2011
Summary
Single-cell amoebas exhibit a unique zigzag crawling pattern, enhancing directional movement. This behavior is also observed in brain microglia and a computational model, suggesting it
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
- Microbiology
Background:
- Cell motility is crucial for biological processes like development and wound healing.
- Eukaryotic cell crawling involves complex biochemical and mechanical events.
- Free-moving amoebae display 'run-and-turn' behavior, similar to bacterial 'run-and-tumble'.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the 'zigzag' turning preference in amoeboid cell crawling.
- To determine if this zigzag behavior is a general property of crawling cells.
- To explore the underlying mechanisms and implications of directional persistence.
Main Methods:
- Observation of single-cell amoeba and microglia (brain immune cells) crawling behavior.
- Development of a rule-based computational model simulating cell crawling mechanics and biochemistry.
- Analysis of trajectory patterns to identify and quantify turning behaviors.
Main Results:
- Amoeboid trajectories show a bias towards zigzag turns, alternating turn directions.
- This zigzag pattern enhances long-range directional persistence in cell movement.
- Microglia and the computational model also exhibit similar zigzag crawling behavior.
Conclusions:
- Zigzag crawling is a general property of various crawling cells, not limited to amoebae.
- This behavior enhances directional persistence, analogous to legged animal locomotion.
- The study provides insights into fundamental mechanisms of cell motility and navigation.
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