Figure 7.

Features of cell shape regulated by intercellular social interactions. (A) A scatter diagram of the mean value $\overline{\text{AR}}$ and the standard deviation ΔAR of cell aspect ratio upon changing the intensities of LA and CIL. Here, the aspect ratio of a polygonal cell is defined as $\text{AR}=\sqrt{I_1/I_2}$, with I₁ and I₂ (I₁ > I₂) being the principal centroidal moments of inertia of the polygonal cell. The purple circular dots in region I are obtained from simulations in the case of relatively strong LA, and the green rhombic dots in region II are obtained from simulations in the case of relatively strong CIL (see the inset). The blue dashed line corresponds to a linear fitting of the data set ($\overline{\text{AR}}$, ΔAR) in region I (the purple circular dots), with the fitting equation $\mathit{\Delta }\text{AR}=0.419\overline{\text{AR}}-0.388$ and the corresponding correlation coefficient R² = 0.9765. The inset shows a phase diagram of the mean cell aspect ratio $\overline{\text{AR}}$ regulated by LA and CIL. (B) The probability density functions (PDFs) of cell shape collapse into a family of PDFs upon varying the intensities of LA and CIL. Typical PDF of the rescaled cell aspect ratio $x_{\text{AR}}=\left(\text{AR}-1\right)/\left(\overline{\text{AR}}-1\right)$. The dashed curve corresponds to the fitting to k-γ distribution via maximal likelihood estimation. The inset shows a phase diagram of the shape parameter k tailored by LA and CIL. The definition of regions I and II are consistent with (A). To see this figure in color, go online.