Chemotaxis and directed locomotion of neutrophil leucocytes are generally thought to be determined by the directed response of the cell to stable, spatial gradients of chemoattractants. In most cases, however, cells are also exposed to characteristic temporal changes in the attractant concentration during the lifetime of the gradient, especially as it develops. We have attempted to test whether...

Cells localize (polarize) internal components to specific locations in response to external signals such as spatial gradients. For example, yeast cells form a mating projection toward the source of mating pheromone. There are specific challenges associated with cell polarization including amplification of shallow external gradients of ligand to produce steep internal gradients of protein compon...

Textural gradients can be defined as differences across space in orientation and spatial frequency content, along with absolute luminance and contrast. In this study, stimuli were created with gradients of these types to see how changing the size and shape of the foreground region affects the psychophysical task. The foreground regions were designed as clusters of target texels alternating with...

The temporal and spatial patterns of epidemics of mycosphaerella blight, [Mycosphaerella pinodes] in field pea in western Canada were characterized during 2000 and 2001, using mathematical models and geostatistical analysis. The logistic model well described the disease progress over distances and in various directions from the inoculum source. The temporal disease progress rates measured by th...

We performed dimensional reduction of Alt’s three-dimensional cell balance equations to one-dimensional Segel’s equations for an axisymmetrical case. The tumbling frequency of motile bacteria was assumed to switch between two different phases according to the sign of the perceived chemical gradients. Chemotactic bacteria responded to positive attractant gradients by suppressing the tumbling fre...

The theory that the spatial organization of cell fate is orchestrated by gradients of diffusing molecules was a major contribution to 20th century developmental biology. Although the existence of morphogens is no longer in doubt, studies on the formation and function of their gradients have yielded far more puzzles than answers. On close inspection, every morphogen gradient seems to use a rich ...

Projecting or moving up a chemical gradient is a universal behavior of living organisms. We tested the ability of S. cerevisiaea-cells to sense and respond to spatial gradients of the mating pheromone alpha-factor produced in a microfluidics chamber; the focus was on bar1Delta strains, which do not degrade the pheromone input. The yeast cells exhibited good accuracy with the mating projection t...

We study a model that describes the spatial spread of a species along a habitat gradient on which the species' growth increases. Mathematical analysis is provided to determine the spreading dynamics of the model. We demonstrate that the species may succeed or fail in local invasion depending on the species' growth function and dispersal kernel. We delineate the conditions under which a spreadin...