Spherical coordinates of the center of active Cdc42 polarization for multiple realizations with polarized initial conditions.

<p>Here the center of the polarization cap is tracked for four different shapes with 800 realizations each. Plotted is the <i>θ</i> and <i>ϕ</i> coordinates (explained in <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006241#pcbi.1006241.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2A</a>) of the center of the polarization cap after 1000 seconds of simulation starting from polarized initial conditions at the tip (<i>θ</i> = 90° and <i>ϕ</i> = 180°). Each point represents the result of one stochastic realization. We can see that for the three irregular tip shapes the polarization cap has drifted away from the tip, whereas for the sphere the cap is stable. The dashed red lines delineate a region of ±10° from the tip, with the red square in the center representing the tip of the projection. The four plots correspond to the four domains shown in <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006241#pcbi.1006241.g002" target="_blank">Fig 2B</a>. See <a href="http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006241#pcbi.1006241.s008" target="_blank">S8 Fig</a> in the Supporting Information for a plot of <i>θ</i> versus distance from the tip.