Related papers: Symmetry-Breaking in Plant Stems
The development of multicellular organisms proceeds through a series of morphogenetic and cell-state transitions, transforming homogeneous zygotes into complex adults by a process of self-organization. Many of these transitions are achieved…
Cell spreading requires a major reorganisation of the actin cytoskeleton, from a cortical structure to a lamellipodium where filaments are mostly parallel to the substrate. We propose a model inspired by the physics of nematic liquid…
In many adult tissues, stem cells and differentiated cells are not homogeneously distributed : stem cells are arranged in periodic "niches", and differentiated cells are constantly produced and migrate out of these niches. In this article,…
This paper develops a point-mutation model describing the evolutionary dynamics of a population of adult stem cells. Such a model may prove useful for quantitative studies of tissue aging and the emergence of cancer. We consider two modes…
Gyrotactic algae are bottom heavy, motile cells whose swimming direction is determined by a balance between a buoyancy torque directing them upwards and fluid velocity gradients. Gyrotaxis has, in recent years, become a paradigmatic model…
Phylogenetic trees are widely used to understand the evolutionary history of organisms. Tree shapes provide information about macroevolutionary processes. However, macroevolutionary models are unreliable for inferring the true processes…
The innumerable shapes of plant leaves present a challenge to the explanatory power of biophysical theory. A model is needed that can produce these shapes with a small set of parameters. This paper presents a simple model of leaf shape…
We introduce a notion of finite sampling consistency for phylogenetic trees and show that the set of finitely sampling consistent and exchangeable distributions on n leaf phylogenetic trees is a polytope. We use this polytope to show that…
We numerically investigate a diffusion-reaction model of an ombrotrophic peatland implementing a Turing instability relying on nutrient accumulation. We propose a systematic and quantitative sorting of the vegetation patterns, based on the…
Diversity patterns of tree species in a tropical forest community are approached by a simple lattice model and investigated by Monte Carlo simulations using a backtracking method. Our spatially explicit neutral model is based on a simple…
Experiments show that the movement of eukaryotic cells is regulated by a process of phase separation of two competing enzymes on the cell membrane, that effectively amplifies shallow external gradients of chemical attractant. Notably, the…
The conditions under which biological cells switch from a static to a motile state are fundamental to the understanding of many healthy and pathological processes. In this paper, we show that even in the presence of a fully symmetric…
The generation of anisotropic shapes occurs during morphogenesis of almost all organisms. With the recent renewal of the interest in mechanical aspects of morphogenesis, it has become clear that mechanics contributes to anisotropic forms in…
A one-dimensional driven two-species model with parallel sublattice update and open boundaries is considered. Although the microscopic many-body dynamics is symmetric with respect to the two species and interactions are short-ranged, there…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking in systems with symmetry is a cornerstone phenomenon accompanying second-order phase transitions. Here, we predict the opposite phenomenon, namely, spontaneous symmetry emergence in a system that lacks…
We explore the possible role of elastic mismatch between epidermis and mesophyll as a driving force for the development of leaf venation. The current prevalent 'canalization' hypothesis for the formation of veins claims that the transport…
In this work we study a two species driven diffusive system with open boundaries that exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking in one dimension. In a symmetry broken state the currents of the two species are not equal, although the dynamics…
We propose and study a simple, physical model for phagocytosis, i.e. the active, actin-mediated uptake of micron-sized particles by biological cells. The cell is described by the phase field method and the driving mechanisms of uptake are…
We present a theory characterizing the phases emerging as a consequence of continuous symmetry-breaking in quantum and classical systems. In symmetry-breaking phases, dynamics is restricted due to the existence of a set of conserved charges…
We consider a class of biologically-motivated stochastic processes in which a unicellular organism divides its resources (volume or damaged proteins, in particular) symmetrically or asymmetrically between its progeny. Assuming the final…