Identifying the mechanism for superdiffusivity in mouse fibroblast motility

Passucci G, Brasch ME, Henderson JH, Zaburdaev V, Manning ML (2019)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2019

Journal

Book Volume: 15

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006732

Abstract

We seek to characterize the motility of mouse fibroblasts on 2D substrates. Utilizing automated tracking techniques, we find that cell trajectories are super-diffusive, where displacements scale faster than t(1/2) in all directions. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain such statistics in other cell types: run and tumble behavior with Levy-distributed run times, and ensembles of cells with heterogeneous speed and rotational noise. We develop an automated toolkit that directly compares cell trajectories to the predictions of each model and demonstrate that ensemble-averaged quantities such as the mean-squared displacements and velocity autocorrelation functions are equally well-fit by either model. However, neither model correctly captures the short-timescale behavior quantified by the displacement probability distribution or the turning angle distribution. We develop a hybrid model that includes both run and tumble behavior and heterogeneous noise during the runs, which correctly matches the short-timescale behaviors and indicates that the run times are not Levy distributed. The analysis tools developed here should be broadly useful for distinguishing between mechanisms for superdiffusivity in other cells types and environments.

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How to cite

APA:

Passucci, G., Brasch, M.E., Henderson, J.H., Zaburdaev, V., & Manning, M.L. (2019). Identifying the mechanism for superdiffusivity in mouse fibroblast motility. PLoS Computational Biology, 15(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006732

MLA:

Passucci, Giuseppe, et al. "Identifying the mechanism for superdiffusivity in mouse fibroblast motility." PLoS Computational Biology 15.2 (2019).

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