Cell divisions suppress dynamical correlations in solid tissues

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Tahaei, Ali, Manna, Ahandeep, Popović, Marko
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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_version_ 1866913117201498112
author Tahaei, Ali
Manna, Ahandeep
Popović, Marko
author_facet Tahaei, Ali
Manna, Ahandeep
Popović, Marko
contents Developing tissues often maintain mechanical coherence while continuously remodeling through cellular processes such as cell divisions and rearrangements. In this way, they are an example of amorphous solids. In passive amorphous solids, local rearrangements can trigger one another through long-ranged elastic interactions, leading to system-spanning avalanches near yielding. Whether similar collective dynamics should be expected in living tissues is unclear, because cell divisions generate stress and remodeling events independently of local mechanical stability. Here, we address this question using a two-dimensional elastoplastic model in which cell divisions are treated as active plastic events. We find that while cell divisions fluidize the tissue below the passive yield stress, but preserve the marginal stability in the quasistatic limit. However, they also strongly suppress the system-spanning avalanches of cell rearrangements, in constrast with the expected behavior in passive amorphous solids. Finally, we show that the avalanche supression originates from the energy balance in the system. Namely, the energy injected by cell divisions allows for shear flow below the yield stress, but also provides a finite budget for rearrangements. These results suggest that proliferating tissues display the structural hallmarks of marginal amorphous solids while exhibiting much shorter-ranged correlations in dynamics, compared to passive amorphous solids.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_12109
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cell divisions suppress dynamical correlations in solid tissues
Tahaei, Ali
Manna, Ahandeep
Popović, Marko
Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Developing tissues often maintain mechanical coherence while continuously remodeling through cellular processes such as cell divisions and rearrangements. In this way, they are an example of amorphous solids. In passive amorphous solids, local rearrangements can trigger one another through long-ranged elastic interactions, leading to system-spanning avalanches near yielding. Whether similar collective dynamics should be expected in living tissues is unclear, because cell divisions generate stress and remodeling events independently of local mechanical stability. Here, we address this question using a two-dimensional elastoplastic model in which cell divisions are treated as active plastic events. We find that while cell divisions fluidize the tissue below the passive yield stress, but preserve the marginal stability in the quasistatic limit. However, they also strongly suppress the system-spanning avalanches of cell rearrangements, in constrast with the expected behavior in passive amorphous solids. Finally, we show that the avalanche supression originates from the energy balance in the system. Namely, the energy injected by cell divisions allows for shear flow below the yield stress, but also provides a finite budget for rearrangements. These results suggest that proliferating tissues display the structural hallmarks of marginal amorphous solids while exhibiting much shorter-ranged correlations in dynamics, compared to passive amorphous solids.
title Cell divisions suppress dynamical correlations in solid tissues
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12109