Reconstructing the gradient source position from steady-state fluxes to small receptors
Publication Date
2018-01-17Journal Title
Scientific Reports
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Volume
8
Number
941
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Dobramysl, U., & Holcman, D. (2018). Reconstructing the gradient source position from steady-state fluxes to
small receptors. Scientific Reports, 8 (941) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19355-5
Abstract
Recovering the position of a source from the fluxes of diffusing particles
through small receptors allows a biological cell to determine its relative
position, spatial localization and guide it to a final target. However, how a
source can be recovered from point fluxes remains unclear. Using the Narrow
Escape Time approach for an open domain, we compute the diffusion fluxes of Brownian particles generated by a steady-state gradient from a single source through small holes distributed on a surface in two dimensions. {We find that the location of a source can be recovered when there are at least 3 receptors and the source is positioned no further than 10 cell radii away}, but this condition is not necessary in a narrow strip. The present approach provides a computational basis for the first step of direction sensing of a gradient at a single cell level.
Keywords
q-bio.CB, q-bio.CB, physics.bio-ph, 92C17
Sponsorship
This work was supported by EPSRC grant no EP/K032208/1. U.D. was supported by a Junior Interdisciplinary Fellowship via Wellcome Trust grant number 105602/Z/14/Z and a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship. D.H. team is supported by a FRM grant.
Funder references
Wellcome Trust (105602/Z/14/Z)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/K032208/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-19355-5
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270509
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