Open AccessRepulsive expansion dynamics in colony growth and gene expression
Author(s) -
Yangxiaolu Cao,
John C. Neu,
Andrew E. Blanchard,
Ting Lu,
You Li
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos computational biology/plos computational biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.628
H-Index - 182
eISSN - 1553-7358
pISSN - 1553-734X
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008168
Subject(s) - dynamics (music) , population , expression (computer science) , division (mathematics) , cell division , biology , process (computing) , biological system , microbiology and biotechnology , physics , mathematics , cell , computer science , genetics , demography , arithmetic , sociology , acoustics , programming language , operating system
Spatial expansion of a population of cells can arise from growth of microorganisms, plant cells, and mammalian cells. It underlies normal or dysfunctional tissue development, and it can be exploited as the foundation for programming spatial patterns. This expansion is often driven by continuous growth and division of cells within a colony, which in turn pushes the peripheral cells outward. This process generates a repulsion velocity field at each location within the colony. Here we show that this process can be approximated as coarse-grained repulsive-expansion kinetics. This framework enables accurate and efficient simulation of growth and gene expression dynamics in radially symmetric colonies with homogenous z-directional distribution. It is robust even if cells are not spherical and vary in size. The simplicity of the resulting mathematical framework also greatly facilitates generation of mechanistic insights.