Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration

Key to collective cell migration is the ability of cells to rearrange their position with respect to their neighbors. Recent theory and experiments demonstrate that cellular rearrangements are facilitated by cell shape, with cells having more elongated shapes and greater perimeters more easily slidi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Aashrith Saraswathibhatla, Jacob Notbohm
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2020-01-01
Series:Physical Review X
Online Access:http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011016
id doaj-1bbba6d9f0d04dec9a0863bdd2117dea
record_format Article
spelling doaj-1bbba6d9f0d04dec9a0863bdd2117dea2020-11-25T02:23:31ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review X2160-33082020-01-0110101101610.1103/PhysRevX.10.011016Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell MigrationAashrith SaraswathibhatlaJacob NotbohmKey to collective cell migration is the ability of cells to rearrange their position with respect to their neighbors. Recent theory and experiments demonstrate that cellular rearrangements are facilitated by cell shape, with cells having more elongated shapes and greater perimeters more easily sliding past their neighbors within the cell layer. Though it is thought that cell perimeter is controlled primarily by cortical tension and adhesion at each cell’s periphery, experimental testing of this hypothesis has produced conflicting results. Here we study collective migration in an epithelial monolayer by measuring forces, cell perimeters, and motion, and find all three to decrease with either increased cell density or inhibition of cell contraction. In contrast to previous understanding, the data suggest that cell shape and rearrangements are controlled not by cortical tension or adhesion at the cell periphery but rather by the stress fibers that produce tractions at the cell-substrate interface. This finding is confirmed by an experiment showing that increasing tractions reverses the effect of density on cell shape and rearrangements. Our study therefore reduces the focus on the cell periphery by establishing cell-substrate traction as a major physical factor controlling shape and motion in collective cell migration.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011016
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Aashrith Saraswathibhatla
Jacob Notbohm
spellingShingle Aashrith Saraswathibhatla
Jacob Notbohm
Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
Physical Review X
author_facet Aashrith Saraswathibhatla
Jacob Notbohm
author_sort Aashrith Saraswathibhatla
title Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
title_short Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
title_full Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
title_fullStr Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
title_full_unstemmed Tractions and Stress Fibers Control Cell Shape and Rearrangements in Collective Cell Migration
title_sort tractions and stress fibers control cell shape and rearrangements in collective cell migration
publisher American Physical Society
series Physical Review X
issn 2160-3308
publishDate 2020-01-01
description Key to collective cell migration is the ability of cells to rearrange their position with respect to their neighbors. Recent theory and experiments demonstrate that cellular rearrangements are facilitated by cell shape, with cells having more elongated shapes and greater perimeters more easily sliding past their neighbors within the cell layer. Though it is thought that cell perimeter is controlled primarily by cortical tension and adhesion at each cell’s periphery, experimental testing of this hypothesis has produced conflicting results. Here we study collective migration in an epithelial monolayer by measuring forces, cell perimeters, and motion, and find all three to decrease with either increased cell density or inhibition of cell contraction. In contrast to previous understanding, the data suggest that cell shape and rearrangements are controlled not by cortical tension or adhesion at the cell periphery but rather by the stress fibers that produce tractions at the cell-substrate interface. This finding is confirmed by an experiment showing that increasing tractions reverses the effect of density on cell shape and rearrangements. Our study therefore reduces the focus on the cell periphery by establishing cell-substrate traction as a major physical factor controlling shape and motion in collective cell migration.
url http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.10.011016
work_keys_str_mv AT aashrithsaraswathibhatla tractionsandstressfiberscontrolcellshapeandrearrangementsincollectivecellmigration
AT jacobnotbohm tractionsandstressfiberscontrolcellshapeandrearrangementsincollectivecellmigration
_version_ 1715497767626866688