Intrinsic stochasticity in cell polarity and contact inhibition of locomotion.

Authors

Mariia Kryvoruchko, Brian A Camley

Published in

Biophysical journal. Oct 29, 2026. Epub Oct 29, 2026.

Abstract

When cells collide, they often exhibit "contact inhibition of locomotion" (CIL), a behavior in which cells repolarize and migrate away from the site of contact. Experimental CIL outcomes are highly variable-why? Here, we develop a minimal stochastic model to quantify how intrinsic noise in cell polarity, arising from the finite number of signaling molecules, influences CIL decision-making. We simulate polarization dynamics by tracking individual Rho GTPase proteins that diffuse and switch stochastically between the cell membrane and cytosol. In the absence of cell-cell contact, the polarity axis diffuses rotationally-the cell's orientation wanders-with a diffusion coefficient that decreases as Rho GTPase copy number increases. Assuming that cell-cell contact inhibits Rho GTPase activation, we investigate how contact geometry, duration, and strength affect CIL sensitivity. At low protein copy number, weak, brief, or spatially narrow contacts are masked by molecular noise. In contrast, at high protein copy number, intrinsic polarity noise is negligible, and randomness in CIL response is more likely to reflect the variability from collision to collision in the cell-cell contact properties.

PMID:
42958799
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.