Protein gradients in single cells induced by their coupling to "morphogen"-like diffusion

Saroj Kumar Nandi, Sam A. Safran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

One of the many ways cells transmit information within their volume is through steady spatial gradients of different proteins. However, the mechanism through which proteins without any sources or sinks form such single-cell gradients is not yet fully understood. One of the models for such gradient formation, based on differential diffusion, is limited to proteins with large ratios of their diffusion constants or to specific protein-large molecule interactions. We introduce a novel mechanism for gradient formation via the coupling of the proteins within a single cell with a molecule, that we call a "pronogen," whose action is similar to that of morphogens in multi-cell assemblies; the pronogen is produced with a fixed flux at one side of the cell. This coupling results in an effectively non-linear diffusion degradation model for the pronogen dynamics within the cell, which leads to a steady-state gradient of the protein concentration. We use stability analysis to show that these gradients are linearly stable with respect to perturbations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number205101
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Chemical Physics
Volume148
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 May 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

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