Symmetry Breaking in Cells and Tissues

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of symmetry breaking, coined in the 1960s in theoretical physics, is becoming increasingly popular as a unifying principle among the many scientific disciplines that study biological systems. Understood broadly, symmetry breaking stands for all phenomena in which a new spatiotemporal order emerges de novo in the systems that were quiescent, uniform, and undifferentiated and, therefore, fundamentally underlies morphogenesis, development, and differentiation of biological systems. A classic example of symmetry breaking on the cellular level is the emergence of cellular polarization, which can take on a variety of forms from the PAR–protein-mediated polarization of the C. elegans zygote to the formation of immunological synapse in T cells. New phenomena, such as phase separation of protein and RNA-rich organelles and signaling complexes, continuously add to the ever-growing list of manifestations of symmetry breaking. The fundamentally non-equilibrium nature of biological systems makes for the staggering diversity and complexity of the phenomena of biological symmetry breaking. This calls for the concerted effort of biologists, physicists, chemists, mathematicians, as well as other scientists and engineers to work together on understanding these fascinating phenomena.

In this multidisciplinary Special Issue of Cells, we invite contributions from all researchers fascinated with biological symmetry breaking on the level of cells and tissues, regardless of their discipline. Your contributions may be in in the form of original research articles, reviews, or shorter perspective articles. Biophysical and mathematical modeling is welcome. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

• All manifestations of cell polarization, cue-directed or spontaneous, planar cell polarity;
• Membrane domain formation, lipid demixing, formation of protein–lipid complexes and rafts;
• Phase separation in the cytoplasm and nucleus, formation of nonmembranous granules and organelles, chromatin condensation;
• Formation of acto-myosin structures at the membrane–cytoskeleton interface, such as filopodia, lamellipodial protrusions, dorsal ruffles, podosomes, and microridges;
• Waves and patterns in the cytoplasm and on the plasma membrane and cortex, including induction of cytokinetic furrows;
• Cellular patterns and gradients, such as formed by kinase–phosphatase opposition, tissue-scale morphogen gradient formation.

Prof. Andrew Goryachev
Guest Editor

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