A minimal model for spontaneous cell polarization and edge activity in oscillating, rotating and migrating cells

How the cells break symmetry and organize their edge activity to move directionally is a fun- damental question in cell biology. Physical models of cell motility commonly rely on gradients of regulatory factors and/or feedback from the motion itself to describe polarization of edge activity. Theses approaches, however, fail to explain cell behavior prior to the onset of polarization. Our analysis using the model system of polarizing and moving fish epidermal keratocytes suggests a novel and simple principle of self-organization of cell activity in which local cell-edge dynamics depends on the distance from the cell center, but not on the orientation with respect to the front-back axis. We validate this principle with a stochastic model that faithfully reproduces a range of cell-migration behaviors. Our findings indicate that spontaneous polarization, persistent motion, and cell shape are emergent properties of the local cell-edge dynamics controlled by the distance from the cell center.