A Mechano-chemical cell cycle for growing cell colonies

Living cells coexist in colonies or tissues. We develop a simplified model of the cell cycle, the fundamental regulatory network controlling growth and division, and couple this to physical stress. In its simplest form this model involves three characteristic times (for adaptation of the cell cycle and volume, as well as a division time), two cell volumes (unstressed and quiescent) and a pressure at which the cell cycle stalls. We employ both particle-based computer simulations and a continuum theory to study quasi-2D colonies growing in a channel. These exhibit moving growth fronts with a profile and speed that are non-trivially related to the substrate friction and the mechano-chemical cell cycle parameters, providing a possible approach to measure such parameters in experiments.