Cellular filaments keeping the pace

Date:
August 10, 2021
Source:
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
Summary:
A new model describes the coordination of beating cilia allowing
to predict their functional behavior. Researchers analyzed the
formation of metachronal waves in arrays of cilia and how external
cues might influence them. The model allows to better understand the
crucial role that cilia play in many biological processes and lays
the foundation for its manipulation. This may ultimately improve
the corresponding medical diagnostics and treatments, but also helps
in the design of artificial systems used in microscale engineering.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A new model describes the coordination of beating cilia allowing to
predict their functional behavior. Researchers analyzed the formation
of metachronal waves in arrays of cilia and how external cues might
influence them. The model allows to better understand the crucial role
that cilia play in many biological processes and lays the foundation for
its manipulation. This may ultimately improve the corresponding medical diagnostics and treatments, but also helps in the design of artificial
systems used in microscale engineering.


========================================================================== Cilia are filamentous, hair-like structures that can be found on nearly
all cells of the human body. Depending on the tissue, they fulfill a
plethora of essential tasks, such as the transport of mucus in trachea, providing access to nutrients and inducing the left-right asymmetry
during embryonic development.

In their role as controllers of large-scale fluid transport, motile cilia undergo cyclic beating strokes. By this, they communicate mechanical
signals to neighboring cilia and collectively create so-called metachronal waves.

Typically, thousands of cilia are involved in the creation of such a
wave and thus their movement needs to be well regulated to ensure --
and optimize - - their biological function. Due to the overwhelming
complexity and multi-scale nature of the phenomenon, a mechanistic understanding of the self-organization of cilia into metachronal waves
has so far been lacking. "Our model allows an in-depth understanding of
the organization of cilia arrays," explains Professor Ramin Golestanian, principal investigator of the study and Director of the Department of
Living Matter Physics at the MPIDS. "For the first time, we are now able
to predict the parameters and properties of a forming metachronal wave."
Cilia behavior depends on both external and internal factors Creating such models for cilia arrays is essential for understanding how external and internal factors may influence the function of the system. For example,
changes in the concentration of certain chemicals or components in the environment induce changes at the small scale and thus might alter the
emerging waves and lead to systemic dysfunction. To understand this, we
need a multi- scale description of the phenomenon. Since the pioneering
works of G.I. Taylor many decades ago (see 'Further Information'),
it is well known that hydrodynamic interactions between cilia can lead
to coordination among them. In other words: The cilia coordination be
explained due to the emerging flow from a cilium's stroke affecting the behavior of the entire array, which ultimately causes the metachronal
wave. The new model, which has been proposed by Fanlong Meng, Rachel
Bennett, Nariya Uchida and Ramin Golestanian, allows to account for
the conditions of many independently beating cilia, which coordinate
their strokes. In their model, the authors focus on fundamental
properties of cilia, such as their different beating harmonics or genomic characteristics. By combining these with features or the emerging waves,
they create a powerful theoretical framework describing the cilia arrays.

Hence, the new model is able to explain both, altered properties and make predictions about the collective behavior of a ciliary array. "As this
allows a better understanding of the organization on a microscale, the
study lays the foundation for a multitude of potential applications" Golestanian adds. They may include the diagnostic assessment of
malfunction in biological samples, new approaches for medical treatments manipulation cilia behavior or the engineering of artificial systems
using metachronal waves.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Planck_Institute_for_Dynamics_and_Self-Organization.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Fanlong Meng, Rachel R. Bennett, Nariya Uchida, Ramin Golestanian.

Conditions for metachronal coordination in arrays of model cilia.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021; 118 (32):
e2102828118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2102828118 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210810104633.htm

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