Premium
Enhanced chemotaxis through spatially regulated absolute concentration robustness
Author(s) -
Biswas Debojyoti,
Bhattacharya Sayak,
Iglesias Pablo A.
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
international journal of robust and nonlinear control
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1099-1239
pISSN - 1049-8923
DOI - 10.1002/rnc.6049
Subject(s) - chemotaxis , robustness (evolution) , biological system , motility , innate immune system , cell migration , cell , biology , biophysics , computer science , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , immune system , receptor , immunology , biochemistry , genetics , gene
Chemotaxis, the directional motility of cells in response to spatial gradients of chemical cues, is a fundamental process behind a wide range of biological events, including the innate immune response and cancer metastasis. Recent advances in cell biology have shown that the protrusions that enable amoeboid cells to move are driven by the stochastic threshold crossings of an underlying excitable system. As a cell encounters a chemoattractant gradient, the size of this threshold is regulated spatially so that the crossings are biased toward the front of the cell. For efficient directional migration, cells must limit undesirable lateral and rear‐directed protrusions. The inclusion of a control mechanism to suppress these unwanted firings would enhance chemotactic efficiency. It is known that absolute concentration robustness (ACR) exerts tight control over the mean and variance of species concentration. Here, we demonstrate how the coupling of the ACR mechanism to the cellular signaling machinery reduces the likelihood of threshold crossings in the excitable system. Moreover, we show that using the cell's innate gradient sensing apparatus to direct the action of ACR to the rear suppresses the lateral movement of the cells and that this results in improved chemotactic performance.