Role of metabolic spatiotemporal dynamics in regulating biofilm colony expansion

Cell fate determination is typically regulated by biological networks, yet increasing evidences suggest that cell−cell communication and environmental stresses play crucial roles in the behavior of a cell population. A recent microfluidic experiment showed that the metabolic codependence of two cell populations generates a collective oscillatory dynamic during the expansion of aBacillus subtilisbiofilm. We develop a modeling framework for the spatiotemporal dynamics of the associated metabolic circuit for cells in a colony. We elucidate the role of metabolite diffusion and the need of two distinct cell populations to observe oscillations. Uniquely, this description captures the onset and thereafter stable oscillatory dynamics during expansion and predicts the existence of damping oscillations under various environmental conditions. This modeling scheme provides insights to understand how cells integrate the information from external signaling and cell−cell communication to determine the optimal survival strategy and/or maximize cell fitness in a multicellular system.

A ‘reader’ unit of the chemical computer

We suggest the main principals and functional units of the parallel chemical computer, namely, (i) a generator (which is a network of coupled oscillators) of oscillatory dynamic modes, (ii) a unit which is able to recognize these modes (a ‘reader’) and (iii) a decision-making unit, which analyses the current mode, compares it with the external signal and sends a command to the mode generator to switch it to the other dynamical regime. Three main methods of the functioning of the reader unit are suggested and tested computationally: (a) the polychronization method, which explores the differences between the phases of the generator oscillators; (b) the amplitude method which detects clusters of the generator and (c) the resonance method which is based on the resonances between the frequencies of the generator modes and the internal frequencies of the damped oscillations of the reader cells. Pro and contra of these methods have been analysed.

Mechanochemical feedback underlies coexistence of qualitatively distinct cell polarity patterns within diverse cell populations

Cell polarization and directional cell migration can display random, persistent, and oscillatory dynamic patterns. However, it is not clear whether these polarity patterns can be explained by the same underlying regulatory mechanism. Here, we show that random, persistent, and oscillatory migration accompanied by polarization can simultaneously occur in populations of melanoma cells derived from tumors with different degrees of aggressiveness. We demonstrate that all of these patterns and the probabilities of their occurrence are quantitatively accounted for by a simple mechanism involving a spatially distributed, mechanochemical feedback coupling the dynamically changing extracellular matrix (ECM)–cell contacts to the activation of signaling downstream of the Rho-family small GTPases. This mechanism is supported by a predictive mathematical model and extensive experimental validation, and can explain previously reported results for diverse cell types. In melanoma, this mechanism also accounts for the effects of genetic and environmental perturbations, including mutations linked to invasive cell spread. The resulting mechanistic understanding of cell polarity quantitatively captures the relationship between population variability and phenotypic plasticity, with the potential to account for a wide variety of cell migration states in diverse pathological and physiological conditions.

Trailing-edge flap flow control for dynamic stall

Results of a series of oscillatory dynamic stall tests of a rotor aerofoil fitted with a pulsed, trailing-edge flap are presented. Flap deflection amplitude, motion profile, duration and starting phase were investigated to assess the potential of the flap for mitigating the adverse effects of dynamic stall, which is one of the limiting factors for rotor blades on the retreating side of a helicopter rotor. The tests were a continuation of the investigations by Ref. 1 who used a computational fluid dynamics method on a symmetric NACA section, and our results broadly confirm their conclusions by experimental test, using a modern rotor section. The results presented in this paper also confirm the observations from experimental work by Refs 2 and 3, which were undertaken at lower Reynolds number and with a larger flap. In the present study, the flap mitigates the high negative pitching moment and negative pitch damping seen in dynamic stall by strong suction being generated over the aerofoil lower surface, and it is the modification to the lower surface shape by the flap that creates this effect. The dynamic stall vortex acts to enhance the lower surface suction, and careful flap phasing and flap motion profile shaping can make the control more effective.