Benjamin Seleb, Louis González, Atanu Chatterjee, Saad Bhamla
{"title":"Moo-ving mountains: grazing agents drive terracette formation on steep hillslopes.","authors":"Benjamin Seleb, Louis González, Atanu Chatterjee, Saad Bhamla","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0451","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0451","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Terracettes, striking, step-like landforms that stripe steep, vegetated hillslopes, have puzzled scientists for more than a century. Competing hypotheses invoke either slow mass wasting (gravity-driven soil flow) or the relentless trampling of grazing animals, yet no mechanistic model has linked hoof-scale behaviour to landscape-scale form. Here, we bridge that gap with an active-walker model in which ungulates are represented as stochastic foragers moving on an erodible slope. Each agent weighs the energetic cost of climbing against the benefit of fresh forage; every hoof-fall compacts soil and lowers local biomass, subtly reshaping the energy landscape that guides subsequent steps. Over time, these stigmergic feedbacks concentrate traffic along cross-slope paths, which coalesce into periodic tread-and-riser bands morphologically analogous to natural terracettes. Our model illustrates how local foraging rules governing movement and substrate feedback can self-organize into large-scale topographic patterns, highlighting the wider role of decentralized biological processes in sculpting terrestrial landscapes.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 240","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148361518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Stephen Williams, Kyra Alexa Ruiz, Elizabeth Heath-Heckman, Erica M Rutter, Shilpa Khatri
{"title":"Thermal stress disrupts symbiotic fluid dynamics in bobtail squid.","authors":"Stephen Williams, Kyra Alexa Ruiz, Elizabeth Heath-Heckman, Erica M Rutter, Shilpa Khatri","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1136","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1136","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The effect of thermal stress on beneficial symbiosis, in the face of rapid climate change, remains poorly understood. We investigate this using the model system, Euprymna scolopes (Es), the Hawaiian bobtail squid, and its bioluminescent symbiont, Vibrio fischeri (Vf), which enables the squid to camouflage itself through counter-illumination. Successful colonization of the squid by Vf must occur hours after hatching and is mediated by fluid flow due to respiration within the squid mantle cavity. To study this process, we develop a mathematical model using the method of regularized stokeslets to simulate the flow and resulting bacterial trajectories within the squid. We explore how thermal stress, mediated by physiological changes in respiration, ciliary dynamics and internal geometry, affects early colonization by analysing the time bacteria spend in regions crucial to the establishment of symbioses in these simulations. A variance-based sensitivity analysis of physiologically relevant parameters on these metrics demonstrated that changes in the breath cycle significantly affect and reduce the time bacteria spend in the critical zone within the squid, hindering colonization.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 240","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148361500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lu Zhong, Lei Dong, Qi R Wang, Chaoming Song, Jianxi Gao
{"title":"Switching exploration modes in human mobility.","authors":"Lu Zhong, Lei Dong, Qi R Wang, Chaoming Song, Jianxi Gao","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0817","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0817","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recent advances in human mobility research have revealed consistent pairwise characteristics in movement behaviour, yet existing mobility models often overlook the spatial and topological structure of mobility networks. By analysing millions of devices' anonymized cell phone trajectories, we show that human mobility networks exhibit a pronounced polycentric and modular structure, in which movements within spatial modules differ fundamentally from movements between modules. This finding challenges the common assumption of uniform mobility dynamics across spatial scales. Inspired by switching behaviours in animal movement patterns, we introduce a 'switch mechanism' to distinguish intra-module and inter-module exploration modes. Incorporating this mechanism into a generative mobility model allows us to simultaneously reproduce individual-level mobility statistics and emergent network-level structures, including high modularity, long topological distances and frequent long-range travel. Our results provide a unified mechanistic explanation for the emergence of polycentric human mobility patterns and highlight the importance of scale-dependent movement dynamics, with implications for urban planning, transportation modelling and epidemic forecasting.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148308627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Owein Guillemot-Legris, Maxime Berg, Poppy O Smith, James B Phillips, Rebecca J Shipley
{"title":"Bridging the gap: towards a digital twin to optimize therapeutic cell-seeding strategies in nerve tissue engineering.","authors":"Owein Guillemot-Legris, Maxime Berg, Poppy O Smith, James B Phillips, Rebecca J Shipley","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0879","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0879","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peripheral nerve injuries impose a substantial strain on the lives of millions of people worldwide. Engineered neural tissues provide a promising avenue to improve peripheral nerve repair strategies, potentially allowing the precise seeding of cells and materials that support regenerative processes. Current optimization of cell-seeding strategies relies on testing the impact of relevant parameters in vivo, requiring considerable time and resources. We propose an alternative approach to the design of cellular hydrogels based on a mathematical cell-solute model, informed via in vitro experiment, to identify promising cell-seeding strategies in silico at a limited cost. These designs are manufactured using 3D-printed moulds and validated in vivo. We evaluate the regenerative potential of these designs by focusing on the impact of different cell-seeding strategies on vascular endothelial growth factor secretion and gradient generation, both crucial elements of regenerative angiogenesis in early nerve repair. In this way, we provide a first proof-of-concept of a digital twin for nerve tissue engineering, which uses in silico, in vitro and in vivo repair models.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148308709","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Oscar Bruno Aguilar-Luviano, Fernando Santos-Escobar, Santiago Orozco-Barrera, Rafael Peña-Miller
{"title":"Conditional filamentation enhances bacterial survival in toxic environments.","authors":"Oscar Bruno Aguilar-Luviano, Fernando Santos-Escobar, Santiago Orozco-Barrera, Rafael Peña-Miller","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0959","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.0959","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Filamentation, a shape-shifting response commonly observed under stress, has often been viewed as a by-product of cellular damage. However, it has remained unclear whether filamentation alone, independent of the canonical SOS response, confers a direct survival advantage. Here, we examined the adaptive value of filamentation in Escherichia coli using a genetically controlled, SOS-independent induction system to compare isogenic, yet phenotypically distinct cells. By integrating mathematical modelling, single-cell microfluidics and time-resolved flow cytometry, we evaluate bacterial survival under heavy-metal and β-lactam antibiotic stress. We show that filamentation improves survival by decreasing the surface-area-to-volume (SA/V) ratio, thereby slowing intracellular toxin accumulation and extending the time available for stress response activation or for toxin levels to dissipate. These findings show that filamentation can serve as an effective morphological strategy to transiently withstand environmental toxicity, highlighting its role as a general mechanism of bacterial stress adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148308665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Hernandez-Aristizabal, Anotida Madzvamuse, Frédéric Luton, Rachele Allena
{"title":"Basement membrane turnover drivesfilopodial protease-independent invasion.","authors":"David Hernandez-Aristizabal, Anotida Madzvamuse, Frédéric Luton, Rachele Allena","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1106","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1106","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Basement membranes (BMs) are specialized, nanoporous extracellular matrices (ECMs) mainly composed of collagen IV fibres and laminins. Because collagen IV fibres form covalent cross-links (CCLs), cells cannot freely cross BMs. BM breaching marks the transition from in situ to invasive carcinoma, commonly attributed to protease activity. However, recent data show tumour cells crossing BMs through protease-independent mechanisms. Experimental evidence suggests that filopodia can play an active role in pore enlargement in extracellular matrices by generating plastic mechanical deformation. Moreover, plasticity can be regulated by CCL concentration, which we hypothesize responds to collagen IV turnover, thus generating transient weak spots. To test this, we developed a biophysical, mathematical model describing the interaction between a tumour-cell cluster (TCC) and a BM considering experimentally measured parameters of filopodial activity and collagen IV turnover taken from the literature. The cluster is represented as an evolving energetic surface, while the BM is described as a point set representing active and inactive links. Simulations show that synchronization of collagen IV turnover, coupled with filopodium extension, drives pore enlargement, providing a mechanistic basis for protease-independent invasion. Consistent with experimental observations, simulations identify two complementary filopodium groups: one driving global degradation and another promoting local pore enlargement.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148264920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alfonso Martínez-Carmena, Michelle G Hawkins, Christina Harvey
{"title":"Tuning for feather loss: wing-tail kinematic adjustments of a moulting red-tailed hawk during perching flight.","authors":"Alfonso Martínez-Carmena, Michelle G Hawkins, Christina Harvey","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1082","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1082","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Birds periodically replace feathers through a process known as moult, often resulting in gaps in their wings or tail; however, many birds must retain locomotive capabilities even when moulting, such as perching. Although moult is known to affect flight performance, the compensatory strategies used by birds to adapt to moult-based changes remain underexplored. Using high-speed imaging, we extracted the wing and tail kinematics of a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), during moult and while fully feathered, as it performed a perching manoeuvre from three different heights. Our results show that the hawk adjusted its wing and tail kinematics to generate similar time-averaged force-to-weight ratios across trials for both feather conditions. However, during the first downstroke after take-off from all heights, the hawk used a significantly larger tail incidence angle and produced higher thrust during moult. Together, these observations suggest that moult only subtly alters time-averaged normalized aerodynamic forces, yet influences the timing of force production within the wingbeat cycle. This study contributes empirical evidence on how a moulting hawk can compensate for morphological variations and weight differences through kinematic changes. By identifying avian compensatory mechanisms, we can inform strategies for wildlife rehabilitation as well as damage tolerance for uncrewed aerial vehicles.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148265016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Non-invasive load measurement in the human tibia via spectral analysis of flexural waves.","authors":"Ali Yawar, Daniel H Aslan, Daniel E Lieberman","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1206","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1206","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Forces transmitted by bones are routinely studied in human biomechanics, but it is challenging to measure them non-invasively, especially outside of laboratory settings. We introduce a technique for non-invasive, in vivo measurement of tibial compressive force using flexural waves propagating in the tibia. Modelling the tibia as an axially compressed Euler-Bernoulli beam, we show that tibial flexural waves have load-dependent frequency spectra. Specifically, under physiological conditions, peak locations in the wave acceleration spectra vary linearly with the compressive force on the tibia and may be used as proxies for the compressive force. We test the validity of this technique using a proof-of-concept wearable system that generates flexural waves via a skin-mounted mechanical transducer and measures the spectra of these waves using a skin-mounted accelerometer. In agreement with beam theory, data from nine participants demonstrate linear relationships between tibial compressive force and spectral peak location, with Pearson correlation coefficients r=0.82-0.99 (mean r=0.93) for medial-lateral swaying and r=0.81-0.98 (mean r=0.93) for walking trials. This flexural wave-based technique could give rise to a new class of wearable sensors for non-invasive physiological bone load monitoring and measurement, impacting research in human locomotion and sports medicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148265076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Phase separation as a tunable regulator of canonical gene regulatory motifs.","authors":"Priya Chakraborty, Mintu Nandi, Sandeep Choubey","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1117","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1117","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) govern essential cellular processes, such as signal transduction, metabolism and cell fate control. The biophysical principles governing the dynamical behaviour of GRNs remain elusive. Recent studies highlight phase separation of transcription factors (TFs) and nucleic acids as a key organizing principle of intracellular biochemistry. In this work, we explore how phase separation of TFs influences the dynamics of two canonical GRNs, namely the toggle switch and the repressilator, using mean-field theory and stochastic simulations. Our mean-field analysis reveals that phase separation alters the stability of fixed points and reshapes the basin geometry of the toggle switch and modifies the oscillatory cycles of the repressilator. A key finding for both networks is that when multiple TFs undergo phase separation, the one with the lowest saturation concentration for phase separation dominates system dynamics. Interestingly, stochastic simulations show that the impact of phase separation on fluctuations (or noise) in the abundance of TFs for GRNs depends strongly on the topology of the circuits. This behaviour stands in sharp contrast with the noise reduction effect observed in the expression of isolated genes. Overall, our results show that biomolecular phase separation acts as a physical principle for tuning stability and noise in GRNs, providing new insights into cellular decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148265038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cristina Almagro-Pérez, Niccolò Peruzzi, Csaba Galambos, Andrew H Song, Hans Brunnström, Kinga I Gawlik, Marco Stampanoni, Karin Tran-Lundmark, Goran Lovric
{"title":"Histology-guided 3D virtual staining of microCT-imaged lung tissue via deep learning.","authors":"Cristina Almagro-Pérez, Niccolò Peruzzi, Csaba Galambos, Andrew H Song, Hans Brunnström, Kinga I Gawlik, Marco Stampanoni, Karin Tran-Lundmark, Goran Lovric","doi":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1186","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsif.2025.1186","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Histologically stained tissue sections are considered the gold standard for studying microscopic anatomy and diagnosing disease in clinical practice. However, the processes of sectioning and staining are laborious, and the overall method relies on two-dimensional analysis. In contrast, X-ray-based virtual histology offers the advantage of virtual sectioning while retaining the full three-dimensional (3D) volumetric representation of the tissue. Nevertheless, its greyscale nature limits its specificity compared to conventional histological stains and creates an additional barrier for pathologists, whose training is primarily based on colour-stained histology. In this work, we present a histology-guided enhancement platform that can integrate the 3D information provided by synchrotron radiation phase-contrast microCT (PCµCT) with the rich visual features characteristic of histological stains. We introduce a multistage PCµCT-histology co-registration method combined with a virtual staining deep neural network and demonstrate successful virtual histological staining of PCµCT human and mouse lung tissue that closely resembles standard histology. We evaluate our strategy on multiple histological stains and apply it to identify 3D collagen-based remodelling of pulmonary arteries in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Overall, we expect our work to facilitate the integration of PCµCT as a clinical tool for 3D analysis of biological tissues and support non-destructive 3D pathology for disease biomarker exploration.</p>","PeriodicalId":17488,"journal":{"name":"Journal of The Royal Society Interface","volume":"23 239","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148265111","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"综合性期刊","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}