Cell size and confinement drive asymmetric cell division through a cortical instability
Abstract
Asymmetric cell division -- in which a mother cell divides into two daughter cells of unequal size -- is a fundamental problem in biology. It is believed that the asymmetry originates from the prior polarization of the mother cell. Here we show that division asymmetry can occur spontaneously even in unpolarized mother cells. Specifically, curvature-dependent active stresses in the cell cortex can lead to this symmetry breaking without any molecular polarity cue if the mother cell is confined within a restricted space. Either reducing the cell size or tightening mechanical confinement triggers the same spontaneous symmetry-breaking instability, in which the contractile ring slips off the equator to yield daughters of unequal volume. In the presence of a polarity cue, this instability cooperates with the cue to program the division asymmetry. The model prediction is compared with the imaging data of C. elegans embryogenesis, in which successive cell divisions in a confined eggshell lead to smaller and smaller cell sizes. The measured division asymmetry indeed increases as the cells shrink, and is further amplified when the embryo is mechanically compressed, both in agreement with the model prediction.
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BibTeX
@misc{gao2026cell,
title = {{Cell size and confinement drive asymmetric cell division through a cortical instability}},
author = {Da Gao and Guoye Guan and Chao Tang and Rui Ma},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01393},
eprint = {2609.01393},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01393},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cell size and confinement drive asymmetric cell division through a cortical instability
AU - Da Gao
AU - Guoye Guan
AU - Chao Tang
AU - Rui Ma
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01393
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01393
AB - Asymmetric cell division -- in which a mother cell divides into two daughter cells of unequal size -- is a fundamental problem in biology. It is believed that the asymmetry originates from the prior polarization of the mother cell. Here we show that division asymmetry can occur spontaneously even in unpolarized mother cells. Specifically, curvature-dependent active stresses in the cell cortex can lead to this symmetry breaking without any molecular polarity cue if the mother cell is confined within a restricted space. Either reducing the cell size or tightening mechanical confinement triggers the same spontaneous symmetry-breaking instability, in which the contractile ring slips off the equator to yield daughters of unequal volume. In the presence of a polarity cue, this instability cooperates with the cue to program the division asymmetry. The model prediction is compared with the imaging data of C. elegans embryogenesis, in which successive cell divisions in a confined eggshell lead to smaller and smaller cell sizes. The measured division asymmetry indeed increases as the cells shrink, and is further amplified when the embryo is mechanically compressed, both in agreement with the model prediction.
ER -