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Cellular memory in eukaryotic chemotaxis depends on the background chemoattractant concentration
Richa Karmakar1, Man-Ho Tang1, Haicen Yue2
1Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA.
Physical Review. E
|February 19, 2021
Summary
Increasing chemoattractant background levels enhance Dictyostelium discoideum cell aggregation. Intermediate levels boost chemotactic efficiency, while high levels suppress directed migration via a bistable memory mechanism.
Area of Science:
- Cellular biology
- Biophysics
- Developmental biology
Background:
- Social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum aggregate via chemotaxis to chemoattractant waves.
- Cellular memory is crucial for directional response to wave fronts.
- Chemoattractant background concentration increases during aggregation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of varying chemoattractant background concentrations on Dictyostelium discoideum chemotaxis.
- To understand how background levels influence the detection and response to chemoattractant waves.
Main Methods:
- Microfluidic experiments applying periodic chemoattractant waves with controlled background levels.
- Computational modeling incorporating a bistable memory module and a nonadaptive component.
Main Results:
- Chemotactic efficiency increases with intermediate background concentrations.
- Efficiency drops sharply to near zero at high background concentrations.
- Results align with a computational model featuring bistable memory.
Conclusions:
- Intermediate chemoattractant background levels enhance cellular memory and directed migration.
- High background levels can suppress directed migration by overwhelming the bistable memory activation.
- Elevated chemoattractant background may facilitate Dictyostelium self-organized aggregation.
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