Mathematical Biology

The strong Allee effect plays an important role on the evolution of population in ecological systems. One important concept is the Allee threshold that determines the persistence or extinction of the population in a long time. In general, a small initial population size is harmful to the survival of a species since when the initial data is below the Allee threshold, the population tends to extinction, rather than persistence. Another interesting feature of population evolution is that a species whose movement strategy follows a conditional dispersal strategy is more likely to persist. To study the interaction between Allee effect and the biased movement strategy, we mainly consider the pattern formation and local dynamics for a class of single species population models that is subject to the strong Allee effect. We first rigorously show the existence of multiple localized solutions when the directed movement is strong enough. Next, the spectrum analysis of the associated linear eigenvalue problem is established and used to investigate the stability properties of these interior spikes. This analysis proves that there exist not only unstable but also linear stable steady states. Finally, we extend results of the single equation to coupled systems for two interacting species, each with different advective terms, and competing for the same resources. We also construct several non-constant steady states and analyze their stability.

This is a work in progress talk by a local graduate student.

The endothelial lining of blood vessels presents a large surface area for exchanging materials between blood and tissues. The endothelial surface layer (ESL) plays a critical role in regulating vascular permeability, hindering leukocyte adhesion as well as inhibiting coagulation during inflammation. Changes in the ESL structure are believed to cause vascular hyperpermeability and induce thrombus formation during sepsis. In addition, ESL topography is relevant for the interactions between red blood cells (RBCs) and the vessel wall, including the wall-induced migration of RBCs and formation of a cell-free layer. To investigate the influence of the ESL on the motion of RBCs, we construct two models to represent the ESL using the immersed boundary method in two dimensions. In particular, we use simulations to study how lift force and drag force change over time when a RBC is placed close to the ESL as thethickness, spatial variation, and permeability of the ESL vary. We find that spatial variation has a significant effect on the wall-induced migration of the RBC when the ESL is highly permeable and that the wall-induced migration can be significantly inhibited by the presence of a thick ESL.

We propose an extension of the well-known Klausmeier model of vegetation to two plant species that consume water at different rates. Rather than competing directly, the plants compete through their intake of water, which is a shared resource between them. In semi-arid regions, the Klausmeier model produces vegetation spot patterns. We are interested in how the competition for water affects the co-existence and stability of patches of different plant species. We consider two plant types: a “thirsty” species and a “frugal” species, that only differ by the amount of water they consume per unit growth, while being identical in other aspects. We find that there is a finite range of precipitation rate for which two species can co-exist. Outside of that range (when the rate is either sufficiently low or high), the frugal species outcompetes the thirsty species. As the precipitation rate is decreased, there is a sequence of stability thresholds such that thirsty plant patches are the first to die off, while the frugal spots remain resilient for longer. The pattern consisting of only frugal spots is the most resilient. The next-most-resilient pattern consists of all-thirsty patches, with the mixed pattern being less resilient than either of the homogeneous patterns. We also examine numerically what happens for very large precipitation rates. We find that for a sufficiently high rate, the frugal plant takes over the entire range, outcompeting the thirsty plant.

There are two rotary motors in biology, ATP synthase and the bacterial flagellar motor. Both are driven by transmembrane ionic currents. We consider an idealized model of such a motor, essentially an electrostatic turbine. The model has a rotor and a stator, which are closely fitting cylinders. Attached to the rotor is a fixed density of negative charge, with helical symmetry. Positive ions move longitudinally by drift and diffusion on the stator. A key assumption is local electroneutrality of the combined charge distribution. With this setup we derive explicit formulae for the transmembrane current and the angular velocity of the rotor in terms of the transmembrane electrochemical potential difference of the positive ions and the mechanical torque on the motor. This relationship between "forces" and "fluxes" turns out to be linear, and given by a symmetric positive definite matrix, as anticipated by non-equilibrium thermodynamics, although we do not make any use of that formalism in deriving the result. The equal off-diagonal terms of this 2x2 matrix describe the electromechanical coupling of the motor. Although macroscopic, the model can be used as a foundation for stochastic simulation via the Einstein relation.

The regulation and maintenance of an organ’s shape is a major outstanding question in developmental biology. The Drosophila wing imaginal disc serves as a powerful system for elucidating design principles of the shape formation in epithelial morphogenesis. Yet, even simple epithelial systems such as the wing disc are extremely complex. A tissue’s shape emerges from the integration of many biochemical and biophysical interactions between proteins, subcellular components, and cell-cell and cell-ECM interactions. How cellular mechanical properties affect tissue size and patterning of cell identities on the apical surface of the wing disc pouch has been intensively investigated. However, less effort has focused on studying the mechanisms governing the shape of the wing disc in the cross-section. Both the significance and difficulty of such studies are due in part to the need to consider the composite nature of the material consisting of multiple cell layers and cell-ECM interactions as well as the elongated shape of columnar cells. Results obtained using iterative approach combining multiscale computational modelling and quantitative experimental approach will be used in this talk to discuss direct and indirect roles of subcellular mechanical forces, nuclear positioning, and extracellular matrix in shaping the major axis of the wing pouch during the larval stage in fruit flies, which serves as a prototypical system for investigating epithelial morphogenesis. The research findings demonstrate that subcellular mechanical forces can effectively generate the curved tissue profile, while extracellular matrix is necessary for preserving the bent shape even in the absence of subcellular mechanical forces once the shape is generated. The developed integrated multiscale modelling environment can be readily extended to generate and test hypothesized novel mechanisms of developmental dynamics of other systems, including organoids that consist of several cellular and extracellular matrix layers.