Before revision:  We tested our model through two scenarios within real developmental processes: the anterior movement of the Cpaaa cell via intercalation and the restoration of the superficial left-right symmetry. Our modeling system overcame the local optimization problems encountered by traditional rule-based, agent-based modeling by using greedy algorithms. It also overcame the computational challenges in the action selection which has been plagued by the traditional tabular-based reinforcement learning approach. Our system can automatically explore the cell movement path by using live microscopy images and it can provide a unique capability to model cell movement scenarios where regulatory mechanisms are not well studied. In addition, our system can be used to explore potential paths of a cell under different regulatory mechanisms or to facilitate new hypotheses for explaining certain cell movement behaviors .
After revision:  We tested our model through two scenarios within real developmental processes: the anterior movement of the Cpaaa cell via intercalation and the restoration of the superficial left-right asymmetry. In the first case, model results showed that Cpaaa's intercalation is an active directional cell movement caused by the continuous effects from a longer distance, as opposed to a passive movement caused by neighbor cell movements. This is because the learning-based simulation found that a passive movement model could not lead Cpaaa to the predefined destination. In the second case, a leader-follower mechanism well explained the collective cell movement pattern. These results showed that our approach to introduce deep reinforcement learning into ABM can test regulatory mechanisms by exploring cell migration paths in a reverse engineering perspective. This model opens new doors to explore large datasets generated by live imaging .