TY - JOUR TI - Dynamics of diffusive cell signaling relays AU - Dieterle, Paul B AU - Min, Jiseon AU - Irimia, Daniel AU - Amir, Ariel A2 - Goldstein, Raymond E A2 - Walczak, Aleksandra M A2 - Koslover, Elena F A2 - Parkin, James VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/12/04 SP - e61771 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e61771 DO - 10.7554/eLife.61771 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.61771 AB - In biological contexts as diverse as development, apoptosis, and synthetic microbial consortia, collections of cells or subcellular components have been shown to overcome the slow signaling speed of simple diffusion by utilizing diffusive relays, in which the presence of one type of diffusible signaling molecule triggers participation in the emission of the same type of molecule. This collective effect gives rise to fast-traveling diffusive waves. Here, in the context of cell signaling, we show that system dimensionality – the shape of the extracellular medium and the distribution of cells within it – can dramatically affect the wave dynamics, but that these dynamics are insensitive to details of cellular activation. As an example, we show that neutrophil swarming experiments exhibit dynamical signatures consistent with the proposed signaling motif. We further show that cell signaling relays generate much steeper concentration profiles than does simple diffusion, which may facilitate neutrophil chemotaxis. KW - collective phenomena KW - diffusive waves KW - cell signaling KW - neutrophil swarming JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -