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Cyanobacteria and myxobacteria use slime secretion for gliding motility over surfaces. The slime is produced by the nozzle-like pores located on the bacteria surface. To understand the mechanism of gliding motion and its relation to slime polymerization, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations of a molecular nozzle with growing inside polymer chains. These simulations show that the compression of polymer chains inside the nozzle is a driving force for propulsion. There is a linear relationship between the average nozzle velocity and the chain polymerization rate with a proportionality coefficient dependent on the geometric characteristics of the nozzle such as its length and friction coefficient. This minimal model of the molecular engine was used to explain the gliding motion of bacteria over surfaces.

In this paper we develop a lattice-based computational model focused on bone resorption by osteoclasts in a single cortical basic multicellular unit (BMU). Our model takes into account the interaction of osteoclasts with the bone matrix, the interaction of osteoclasts with each other, the generation of osteoclasts from a growing blood vessel, and the renewal of osteoclast nuclei by cell fusion. All these features are shown to strongly influence the geometrical properties of the developing resorption cavity including its size, shape and progression rate, and are also shown to influence the distribution, resorption pattern and trajectories of individual osteoclasts within the BMU. We demonstrate that for certain parameter combinations, resorption cavity shapes can be recovered from the computational model that closely resemble resorption cavity shapes observed from microCT imaging of human cortical bone., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 1 table. Revised version: paper entirely rewritten for a more biology-oriented readership. Technical points of model description now in Appendix. Addition of two new figures (Fig. 5 and Fig. 9) and removal of former Fig. 4

Background Organisms, at scales ranging from unicellular to mammals, have been known to exhibit foraging behavior described by random walks whose segments confirm to Levy or exponential distributions. For the first time, we present evidence that single cells (mammary epithelial cells) that exist in multi-cellular organisms (humans) follow a bimodal correlated random walk (BCRW). Methodology/Principal Findings Cellular tracks of MCF-10A pBabe, neuN and neuT random migration on 2-D plastic substrates, analyzed using bimodal analysis, were found to reveal the BCRW pattern. We find two types of exponentially distributed correlated flights (corresponding to what we refer to as the directional and re-orientation phases) each having its own correlation between move step-lengths within flights. The exponential distribution of flight lengths was confirmed using different analysis methods (logarithmic binning with normalization, survival frequency plots and maximum likelihood estimation). Conclusions/Significance Because of the presence of non-uniform turn angle distribution of move step-lengths within a flight and two different types of flights, we propose that the epithelial random walk is a BCRW comprising of two alternating modes with varying degree of correlations, rather than a simple persistent random walk. A BCRW model rather than a simple persistent random walk correctly matches the super-diffusivity in the cell migration paths as indicated by simulations based on the BCRW model.

We report the development of a coarse-grained Langevin dynamics model of a lamellipodium featuring growing F-actin filaments in order to study the effect of stiffness of the F-actin filament, the G-actin monomer concentration, and the number of polymerization sites on lamellipodium protrusion. The virtual lamellipodium is modeled as a low-aspect-ratio doubly capped cylinder formed by triangulated particles on its surface. It is assumed that F-actin filaments are firmly attached to a lamellipodium surface where polymerization sites are located, and actin polymerization takes place by connecting a G-actin particle to a polymerization site and to the first particle of a growing F-actin filament. It is found that there is an optimal number of polymerization sites for rapid lamellipodium protrusion. The maximum speed of lamellipodium protrusion is related to competition between the number of polymerization sites and the number of available G-actin particles, and the degree of pulling and holding of the lamellipodium surface by non-polymerizing actin filaments. The lamellipodium protrusion by actin polymerization displays saltatory motion exhibiting pseudo-thermal equilibrium: the lamellipodium speed distribution is Maxwellian in two dimensions but the lamellipodium motion is biased so that the lamellipodium speed in the direction of the lamellipodium motion is much larger than that normal to the lamellipodium motion.

We have developed an off-lattice hybrid discrete-continuum (OLHDC) model of tumor growth and invasion. The continuum part of the OLHDC model describes microenvironmental components such as matrix-degrading enzymes, nutrients or oxygen, and extracellular matrix (ECM) concentrations, whereas the discrete portion represents individual cell behavior such as cell cycle, cell-cell, and cell-ECM interactions and cell motility by the often-used persistent random walk, which can be depicted by the Langevin equation. Using this framework of the OLHDC model, we develop a phenomenologically realistic and bio/physically relevant model that encompasses the experimentally observed superdiffusive behavior (at short times) of mammalian cells. When systemic simulations based on the OLHDC model are performed, tumor growth and its morphology are found to be strongly affected by cell-cell adhesion and haptotaxis. There is a combination of the strength of cell-cell adhesion and haptotaxis in which fingerlike shapes, characteristic of invasive tumor, are observed.