Fig 1. Elements of our model.

The cell shape is tracked by a phase field ϕ(r). The cell boundary (ϕ = 0.5 contour line) is plotted in black. On the left side the Rac concentration ρ(r) is shown, which defines the cell front. The inhibitor level I(r) is plotted on the right. To limit the internal fields to the inside of the cell, we plot I(r) × ϕ(r) (ρ(r) × ϕ(r), respectively). Throughout this work we use the shown color scales. To indicate the (static) micropattern, the contour line with χ(r) = 0.5 is displayed as a thick blue line.