Abstract:
Cell sorting is a fundamental phenomenon in morphogenesis, which
is the process that leads to shape formation in
living organisms. The sorting of heterotypic cell populations
is produced by a variety of inter-cellular actions,
e.g. differential chemotactic response, adhesion and motility. Via
a process called chemotaxis, living cells respond to chemicals
released by other cells into the environment. Each cell
can respond to the stimulus by moving in the direction of
the gradient of the cumulative chemical field detected at its
surface. Inspired by the biological phenomena of chemotaxis and
cell sorting in heterotypic cell aggregates, we propose a
chemotaxis-based algorithm for the sorting of self-organizing
heterotypic agents. In our algorithm two types
of agents are initially randomly placed in a toroidal environment.
Agents emit a chemical signal and interact with
nearby agents. Given the appropriate parameters, the two
kinds of agents self-organize into a complex aggregate consisting
of a group of one type of agents surrounded by agents
of the second type. This paper describes the chemotaxis-based
sorting algorithm, the behaviors of our self-organizing
heterotypic agents, evaluation of the final aggregates and
parametric studies of the results.
