Spherical Caps in Cell Polarization. Author Rocky Diegmiller, Hadrien Montanelli, Cyrill Muratov, Stanislav Shvartsman Publication Year 2018 Type Journal Article Abstract Intracellular symmetry breaking plays a key role in wide range of biological processes, both in single cells and in multicellular organisms. An important class of symmetry-breaking mechanisms relies on the cytoplasm/membrane redistribution of proteins that can autocatalytically promote their own recruitment to the plasma membrane. We present an analytical construction and a comprehensive parametric analysis of stable localized patterns in a reaction-diffusion model of such a mechanism in a spherical cell. The constructed patterns take the form of high-concentration patches localized into spherical caps, similar to the patterns observed in the studies of symmetry breaking in single cells and early embryos. Keywords Models, Biological, Cell Membrane, Cell Shape, Cell Polarity, Diffusion, Intracellular Space Journal Biophys J Volume 115 Issue 1 Pages 26-30 Date Published 2018 Jul 03 ISSN Number 1542-0086 DOI 10.1016/j.bpj.2018.05.033 Alternate Journal Biophys J PMCID PMC6035301 PMID 29933887 PubMedPubMed CentralGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML