An investigation of design principles underlying repulsive and attractive gradient sensing and their switching

Abstract

Many important cellular processes rely on cellular responses to spatially graded signals. This response may be either attractive, indicating a positive bias, or repulsive indicating a negative bias. In this paper we consider cells which exhibit both repulsive and attractive gradient sensing responses and aim to uncover the underlying design principles and features of how the networks are wired which could allow a cell to exhibit both responses. We use a modular approach to examine different configurations which will allow for a cell to exhibit both responses and analyse how this depends on the basic characteristics of gradient sensing and downstream signal propagation. Overall our analysis provides insights into how gradient responses can be switched and the key factors which affect this switching.