Display Settings:

Format

Send to:

Choose Destination

    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Aug 9;102(32):11308-12. Epub 2005 Aug 1.

    A three-dimensional model of myxobacterial aggregation by contact-mediated interactions.

    Sozinova O, Jiang Y, Kaiser D, Alber M.

    Department of Mathematics and Center for the Study of Biocomplexity, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670, USA.

    Myxobacteria provide one of the simplest models of cell-cell interaction and organized cell movement leading to cellular differentiation. When starved, tens of thousands of cells change their movement pattern from outward spreading to inward concentration; they form aggregates that become fruiting bodies. Cells inside fruiting bodies differentiate into round, nonmotile, environmentally resistant spores. Traditionally, cell aggregation has been considered to imply chemotaxis; a long-range cell interaction. However, myxobacterial aggregation is the consequence of direct cell-contact interactions, not chemotaxis. We present here a 3D stochastic lattice-gas cellular automata model of cell aggregation based on local cell-cell contact, and no chemotaxis. We demonstrate that a 3D discrete stochastic model can simulate two stages of cell aggregation. First, a "traffic jam" forms embedded in a field of motile cells. The jam then becomes an aggregation center that accumulates more cells. We show that, at high cell density, cells stream around the traffic jam, generating a 3D hemispherical mound. Later, when the nuclear traffic jam dissolves, the aggregation center becomes a 3D ring of streaming cells.

    PMID: 16061806 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

    PMCID: PMC1183571

    Supplemental Content

    Click here to read Click here to read