Modeling the Excess Cell Surface Stored in a Complex Morphology of Bleb-Like Protrusions
Fig 7
Phase field simulation showing convergence to a target 3D cell morphology image.
(A) The target 3D cell morphology. (B) The assumed initial data for the cell surface. (C) The converged cell surface from the phase field simulation. (D) 2D planar slices at z = 0.5, y = 0.5 and x = 0.5, respectively, of the converged 3D phase field simulation shown in C. The color bar depicts level sets of the cortical phase variable ϕ2 to delineate the cortex (red is the level set ϕ2 = 1) from the pure external aqueous medium and pure interior cytosol (both blue since ϕ2 = 0), while both diffuse interfaces are depicted by the color interpolation between these level sets of ϕ2. (E) Corresponding pressure distributions (units of Pa) in the 2D slices shown in (D). (F) Distribution of the trace of the Ericksen stress (units of Pa) in the 2D slices shown in (D). The color bar for E, F is in units of Pa. For these calculations the Flory order parameter is set to 1.