Flow and Diffusion in Channel-Guided Cell Migration

Collective migration of mechanically coupled cell layers is a notable feature of wound healing, embryonic development, and cancer progression. In confluent epithelial sheets, the dynamics have been found to be highly heterogeneous, exhibiting spontaneous formation of swirls, long-range correlations, and glass-like dynamic arrest as a function of cell density. In contrast, the flow-like properties of one-sided cell-sheet expansion in confining geometries are not well understood. Here, we studied the short- and long-term flow of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells as they moved through microchannels. Using single-cell tracking and particle image velocimetry (PIV), we found that a defined averaged stationary cell current emerged that exhibited a velocity gradient in the direction of migration and a plug-flow-like profile across the advancing sheet. The observed flow velocity can be decomposed into a constant term of directed cell migration and a diffusion-like contribution that increases with density gradient. The diffusive component is consistent with the cell-density profile and front propagation speed predicted by the Fisher-Kolmogorov equation. To connect diffusion-mediated transport to underlying cellular motility, we studied single-cell trajectories and occurrence of vorticity. We discovered that the directed large-scale cell flow altered fluctuations in cellular motion at short length scales: vorticity maps showed a reduced frequency of swirl formation in channel flow compared with resting sheets of equal cell density. Furthermore, under flow, single-cell trajectories showed persistent long-range, random-walk behavior superimposed on drift, whereas cells in resting tissue did not show significant displacements with respect to neighboring cells. Our work thus suggests that active cell migration manifests itself in an underlying, spatially uniform drift as well as in randomized bursts of short-range correlated motion that lead to a diffusion-mediated transport.     

Elevationally biased avian predation as a contributor to the spatial distribution of geometrid moth outbreaks in sub‐arctic mountain birch forest

1. Population dynamics and interactions that vary over a species' range are of particular importance in the context of latitudinal clines in biological diversity. Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) and autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) are two species of eruptive geometrids that vary widely in outbreak tendency over their range, which generally increases from south to north and with elevation. 2. The predation pressure on geometrid larvae and pupae over an elevational gradient was tested. The effects of background larval density and bird occupancy of monitoring nest boxes on predation rates were also tested. Predation on larvae was tested through exclusion treatments at 20 replicate stations over four elevations at one site, while pupae were set out to measure predation at two elevations at three sites. 3. Larval densities were reduced by bird predation at three lower elevations, but not at the highest elevation, and predation rates were 1.9 times higher at the lowest elevation than at the highest elevation. The rate of predation on larvae was not related to background larval density or nest box occupancy, although there were more eggs and chicks at the lowest elevation. There were no consistent differences in predation on pupae by elevation. 4. These results suggest that elevational variation in avian predation pressure on larvae may help to drive elevational differences in outbreak tendency, and that birds may play a more important role in geometrid population dynamics than the focus on invertebrate and soil predators of previous work would suggest.