Emergence of hexanematic order in a growing confluent cell monolayer.

Authors

Hon Lin Too, Farisan Dary, Isaac Si Yuan Ling, Dustin Erhard Theofilus, Duo Zhang, Haiyi Liang, Ee Hou Yong

Published in

Soft matter. Sep 30, 2026. Epub Sep 30, 2026.

Abstract

Collective migration of epithelial layers underlies processes ranging from wound healing to cancer invasion. A defining yet challenging feature is the emergence of distinct cell morphologies within a single migrating confluent sheet, with larger, elongated cells at the active boundary and smaller, hexatically ordered cells in the bulk. Here, we develop a stochastic particle-Voronoi framework that captures this hexanematic organization without prescribing target geometries and distinct cell types. We show that boundary-driven collective motion generates an outward velocity gradient. This gradient, coupled to a density and velocity-dependent division rule, produces peripheral cells that are larger, more elongated, and more defect-prone, while bulk cells remain smaller, isotropic, and hexagonally packed. These results show how minimal, non-equilibrium mechanical interactions give rise to emergent, self-organized tissue-scale patterning during collective migration.

PMID:
42813555
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Sep 2026.

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