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Abstract:
We present a generic mechanism for directional sensing in
eukaryotic cells that is based on bistable dynamics. As the key feature of this
modeling approach, the velocity of trigger waves in the bistable sensing system
changes its sign across cells that are exposed to an external chemoattractant
gradient. This is achieved by combining a two-component activator/inhibitor
system with a bistable switch that induces an identical symmetry breaking
for arbitrary gradient input signals. A simple kinetic example is designed to
illustrate the dynamics of a bistable directional sensing mechanism in numerical
simulations.
