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Spontaneous cell polarization: undermining determinism

Nature Cell Biology volume 5, pages 267–270 (2003)Cite this article

It is widely observed that eukaryotic cells can polarize spontaneously in the absence of pre-established asymmetric cues. This phenomenon indicates that the principle of self-organization may be central to the establishment of cell polarity. Modelling work, as well as recent experimental data from several organisms, suggests that a combination of local positive feedback loops and global inhibitors could result in robust cell symmetry breaking through amplification of minute, stochastic variations.

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Figure 1: Cue-dependent and random cell polarization in different organisms.
Figure 2: Positive feedback loops that can drive spontaneous cell polarization.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank O. Weiner, S. Wedlich, S. Altschuler and L. Wu for critical comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by an EMBO fellowship to R.W.S and a grant from the National Institute of Health (GM057063) to R.L.

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  1. Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, 02115, MA, USA

    Roland Wedlich-Soldner & Rong Li

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Correspondence to Rong Li.

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Wedlich-Soldner, R., Li, R. Spontaneous cell polarization: undermining determinism. Nat Cell Biol 5, 267–270 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0403-267

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