Cell Migration Boundary Motion in Drosophila Egg Chambers: A Combined Phase Field and Chemoattractant Model

TL;DR

This paper presents a mathematical model combining phase-field and chemoattractant diffusion-reaction systems to study how tissue geometry influences collective border cell migration in Drosophila egg chambers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel spatially resolved framework that accounts for tissue geometry and extracellular diffusion to understand chemoattractant distribution during cell migration.

Findings

Geometry influences chemoattractant distribution and migration speed.

Bottlenecks and intersections flatten gradients, slowing migration.

The model aligns with experimental observations of migration dynamics.

Abstract

In the Drosophila melanogaster egg chamber, the collective migration of border cells toward the oocyte is guided by spatial gradients of chemoattractants. While cellular responses to these cues are well characterized, the spatial distribution of chemoattractant within the tissue remains difficult to measure experimentally due to imaging limitations and extracellular complexity. In this study, we develop a spatially resolved mathematical framework to model local chemoattractant concentrations during border cell migration. We use a phase-field approach to represent the egg chamber geometry and define a diffusion-reaction system with spatially heterogeneous diffusivity that accounts for confinement by cellular domains. This framework allows chemoattractant diffusion to be restricted to extracellular space while remaining excluded from the interiors of nurse cells, the border cell cluster, and the oocyte, similar to what we observe in vivo. We simulate secretion from the oocyte and degradation throughout the domain, showing how geometry shapes the distribution of signaling molecules. We further couple this chemical field to a mechanical model of cluster migration that includes a tangential interface migration (TIM) force, allowing the cluster to respond to both chemoattractant gradients and cell-cell contact. Our results show that signal localization and tissue geometry jointly influence directional persistence and the speed of migration. Notably, geometric bottlenecks and intersections can flatten local gradients and slow migration, consistent with experimental observations. This modeling framework offers a tool to investigate how biophysical constraints shape signaling environments and guide collective cell movement in vivo.