Topotaxis of active Brownian particles
Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that cellular motion can be directed by topographical gradients, such as those resulting from spatial variations in the features of a micropatterned substrate. This phenomenon, known as topotaxis, has been extensively studied for topographical gradients...
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Published in | Physical review. E Vol. 101; no. 3-1; p. 032602 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
01.03.2020
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Online Access | Get more information |
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Summary: | Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that cellular motion can be directed by topographical gradients, such as those resulting from spatial variations in the features of a micropatterned substrate. This phenomenon, known as topotaxis, has been extensively studied for topographical gradients at the subcellular scale, but can also occur in the presence of a spatially varying density of cell-sized features. Such a large-scale topotaxis has recently been observed in highly motile cells that persistently crawl within an array of obstacles with smoothly varying lattice spacing. We introduce a toy model of large-scale topotaxis, based on active Brownian particles. Using numerical simulations and analytical arguments, we demonstrate that topographical gradients introduce a spatial modulation of the particles' persistence, leading to directed motion toward regions of higher persistence. Our results demonstrate that persistent motion alone is sufficient to drive large-scale topotaxis and could serve as a starting point for more detailed studies on self-propelled particles and cells. |
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ISSN: | 2470-0053 |
DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.032602 |