Tiny cellular biases grow into spirals in a study of collective pattern formation
Research announcement and Nature Communications publication: October 26. Basic work with cellular slime molds, not an explanation of human handedness.
IllustrationRIKEN and partners announced October 26 how continuously supplied slime-mold cells formed centimeter-scale clockwise spirals. The study connects individual motion with collective shape.
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Research announcement and Nature Communications publication: October 26. Basic work with cellular slime molds, not an explanation of human handedness.
Observing an open system
The team used an open system continuously supplying Dictyostelium cells from one location. Cells formed a dense ring around the source, then multi-armed spirals rotating clockwise on a centimeter scale.
Interactions amplify a small bias
A mathematical model reproduced the pattern using alignment between moving cells and their slight clockwise bias. Continuous supply was also important. This explores how cellular asymmetry becomes a larger structure; it neither explains all human organ formation nor establishes a treatment.
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