Patch coalescence as a mechanism for eukaryotic directional sensing

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining how eukaryotic cells polarize in response to chemical signals, highlighting the role of patch coalescence and the dependence of polarization time on signal anisotropy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theory of cell polarization involving patch coalescence, with quantitative predictions on polarization time and detection thresholds based on anisotropy.

Findings

Polarization time scales as epsilon^{-2} with anisotropy.

Existence of a threshold anisotropy proportional to inverse cell radius.

Patch coalescence as a key mechanism for directional sensing.

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells possess a sensible chemical compass allowing them to orient toward sources of soluble chemicals. The extracellular chemical signal triggers separation of the cell membrane into two domains populated by different phospholipid molecules and oriented along the signal anisotropy. We propose a theory of this polarization process, which is articulated into subsequent stages of germ nucleation, patch coarsening and merging into a single domain. We find that the polarization time, $t_\epsilon$, depends on the anisotropy degree $\epsilon$ through the power law $t_\epsilon\propto \epsilon^{-2}$, and that in a cell of radius $R$ there should exist a threshold value $\epsilon_\mathrm{th}\propto R^{-1}$ for the smallest detectable anisotropy.