Abstract
Cells can show not only spontaneous movement but also tactic responses to environmental signals. Since the former can be regarded as the basis to realize the latter, playing essential roles in various cellular functions, it is important to investigate spontaneous movement quantitatively at different physiological conditions in relation to a cell's physiological functions. For that purpose, we observed a series of spontaneous movements by Dictyostelium cells at different developmental periods by using a single cell tracking system. Using statistical analysis of these traced data, we found that cells showed complex dynamics with anomalous diffusion and that their velocity distribution had power-law tails in all conditions. Furthermore, as development proceeded, average velocity and persistency of the movement increased and as too did the exponential behavior in the velocity distribution. Based on these results, we succeeded in applying a generalized Langevin model to the experimental data. With this model, we discuss the relation of spontaneous cell movement to cellular physiological function and its relevance to behavioral strategies for cell survival.
Highlights
Cell movement is composed of multiple dynamical processes such as surface attachment and detachment cycles, development and collapse of filopodia, movement of the cell body center, and maintenance of cell morphology
Tactic behaviors are achieved by biasing the cell movement in a sensitive and stable manner in response to environmental signals [2,3], playing an essential role in various cellular functions
It is important to quantify the existing fluctuations in cell motion dynamics and identify its control mechanism at different physiological conditions in order to clarify the physiological meaning of spontaneous cell movement
Summary
Cell movement is composed of multiple dynamical processes such as surface attachment and detachment cycles, development and collapse of filopodia, movement of the cell body center, and maintenance of cell morphology In these processes, the motile apparatus such as the cytoskeleton or a motor molecule and the many related signaling molecules systematically coordinate to achieve proper function [1]. It is important to quantify the existing fluctuations in cell motion dynamics and identify its control mechanism at different physiological conditions in order to clarify the physiological meaning of spontaneous cell movement. For this purpose, we adopted Dictyostelium discoideum (Fig. 1) as a model to quantify spontaneous movement. We discuss the relevance of spontaneous cell movement to cellular physiological functions with regards to behavioral strategies for cell survival
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