Biomechanical Feedback Strengthens Jammed Cellular Packings

Journal Article · 22 May 2019 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.208102 · OSTI ID:1527126

Gniewek, Pawel ^[1]; Schreck, Carl F. ^[1]; Hallatschek, Oskar ^[1]

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1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Integrative Biology

Growth in confined spaces can drive cellular populations through a jamming transition from a fluidlike state to a solidlike state. Experiments have found that jammed budding yeast populations can build up extreme compressive pressures (over 1 MPa), which in turn feed back onto cellular physiology by slowing or even stalling cell growth. Using numerical simulations, we investigate how this feedback impacts the mechanical properties of model jammed cell populations. In this work, we find that feedback directs growth toward poorly coordinated regions, resulting in an excess number of cell-cell contacts that rigidify cell packings. Cell packings possess anomalously large shear and bulk moduli that depend sensitively on the strength of feedback. These results demonstrate that mechanical feedback on the single-cell level is a simple mechanism by which living systems may tune their population-level mechanical properties.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC); Simons Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF); National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS); National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; 327934; 1555330; R01GM115851
• OSTI ID: 1527126
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1515111
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 20; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English