📰 "The spontaneous emergence of leaders and followers in a mathematical model of cranial neural crest cell migration"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00374 #CellMigration #Dynamics #Q-Bio.Cb
#Cell
The spontaneous emergence of leaders and followers in a mathematical model of cranial neural crest cell migration
Many agent-based mathematical models of cranial neural crest cell (CNCC) migration impose a binary phenotypic partition of cells into either leaders or followers. In such models, the movement of leader cells at the front of collectives is guided by local chemoattractant gradients, while follower cells behind leaders move according to local cell-cell guidance cues. Although such model formulations have yielded many insights into the mechanisms underpinning CNCC migration, they rely on fixed phenotypic traits that are difficult to reconcile with evidence of phenotypic plasticity in vivo. A later agent-based model of CNCC migration aimed to address this limitation by allowing cells to adaptively combine chemotactic and cell-cell guidance cues during migration. In this model, cell behaviour adapts instantaneously in response to environmental cues, which precludes the identification of a persistent subset of cells as leader-like over biologically relevant timescales, as observed in vivo. Here, we build on previous leader-follower and adaptive phenotype models to develop a polarity-based agent-based model of CNCC migration, in which all cells evolve according to identical rules, interact via a pairwise interaction potential, and carry polarity vectors that evolve according to a dynamical system driven by time-averaged exposure to chemoattractant gradients. Numerical simulations of this model show that a leader-follower phenotypic partition emerges spontaneously from the underlying collective dynamics of the model. Furthermore, the model reproduces behaviour that is consistent with experimental observations of CNCC migration in the chick embryo. Thus, we provide an experimentally consistent, mechanistically-grounded mathematical model that captures the emergence of leader and follower cell phenotypes without their imposition a priori.
📰 "Inferring three-body interactions in cell migration dynamics"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05764 #Physics.Bio-Ph
#CellMigration #Dynamics #Cell
Inferring three-body interactions in cell migration dynamics
In active matter and living matter, such as clusters of migrating cells, collective dynamics emerges from the underlying interactions. A common assumption of theoretical descriptions of collective cell migration is that these interactions are pairwise additive. It remains unclear, however, if the dynamics of groups of cells is solely determined by pairwise interactions, or if higher-order interaction terms come into play. To investigate this question, we use time-lapse microscopy to record the dynamics of three cells interacting together in a linear three-site geometry. We collect a large number of cellular trajectories and develop an inference scheme to infer both pairwise and potential three-body cell-cell interactions. Our results reveal evidence of three-body interactions in one of the two cell lines tested. However, these three-body interactions only introduce minor corrections to the overall dynamics. Our work provides a methodology to infer the existence of three-body interactions from trajectory data, and supports the commonly assumed pairwise nature of cell-cell interactions.
📰 "[Corrigendum] CXCR6 predicts poor prognosis in gastric cancer and promotes tumor metastasis through epithelial-mesenchymal transition"
https://doi.org/doi:10.3892/or.2026.9043https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41508934/ #CellMigration #Cell
Spandidos Publications: Oncology Reports
Oncology Reports is an international journal devoted to fundamental and applied research in Oncology.
📰 "ATGL-mediated lipid droplet lipolysis promotes collective migration in Drosophila"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.06.697938v1?rss=1 #CellMigration #Cell📰 "Cellular consequences, citrullination substrates, and antigenicity resulting from wild-type and targeted PAD4 on cell surfaces"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.696859v1?rss=1 #CellMigration #Cell📰 "Avl9 defines a family of GTPase-activating proteins that regulate diverse cell biological functions"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697756v1?rss=1 #CellMigration #Cell📰 "First-in-Class Small Molecule ROBO2 Binders Identified through Integrated Virtual Screening and Biophysical Validation"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697640v1?rss=1 #CellMigration #Cell📰 "The spontaneous emergence of leaders and followers in a mathematical model of cranial neural crest cell migration"
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00374 #CellMigration #Q-Bio.Cb
#Dynamics #CellThe spontaneous emergence of leaders and followers in a mathematical model of cranial neural crest cell migration
Many agent-based mathematical models of cranial neural crest cell (CNCC) migration impose a binary phenotypic partition of cells into either leaders or followers. In such models, the movement of leader cells at the front of collectives is guided by local chemoattractant gradients, while follower cells behind leaders move according to local cell-cell guidance cues. Although such model formulations have yielded many insights into the mechanisms underpinning CNCC migration, they rely on fixed phenotypic traits that are difficult to reconcile with evidence of phenotypic plasticity in vivo. A later agent-based model of CNCC migration aimed to address this limitation by allowing cells to adaptively combine chemotactic and cell-cell guidance cues during migration. In this model, cell behaviour adapts instantaneously in response to environmental cues, which precludes the identification of a persistent subset of cells as leader-like over biologically relevant timescales, as observed in vivo. Here, we build on previous leader-follower and adaptive phenotype models to develop a polarity-based agent-based model of CNCC migration, in which all cells evolve according to identical rules, interact via a pairwise interaction potential, and carry polarity vectors that evolve according to a dynamical system driven by time-averaged exposure to chemoattractant gradients. Numerical simulations of this model show that a leader-follower phenotypic partition emerges spontaneously from the underlying collective dynamics of the model. Furthermore, the model reproduces behaviour that is consistent with experimental observations of CNCC migration in the chick embryo. Thus, we provide an experimentally consistent, mechanistically-grounded mathematical model that captures the emergence of leader and follower cell phenotypes without their imposition a priori.
Rxiv mechanobio