Collective Dynamics of Focal Adhesions Regulate Direction of Cell Motion.
Simon Lo Vecchio, Raghavan Thiagarajan, David Caballero, Vincent Vigon, Laurent Navoret, Raphaël Voituriez, Daniel Riveline
Author Information
Simon Lo Vecchio: Laboratory of Cell Physics ISIS/IGBMC, CNRS and University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, France; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, France; Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France.
Raghavan Thiagarajan: Laboratory of Cell Physics ISIS/IGBMC, CNRS and University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, France; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, France; Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France.
David Caballero: Laboratory of Cell Physics ISIS/IGBMC, CNRS and University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, France; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, France; Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France.
Vincent Vigon: Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée, UMR 7501, Université de Strasbourg et CNRS.
Laurent Navoret: Institut de Recherche Mathématique Avancée, UMR 7501, Université de Strasbourg et CNRS.
Raphaël Voituriez: Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de la Matière Condensée, UMR 7600 CNRS/Sorbonne Université, 4 Place Jussieu, 75255 Paris Cedex, France; Laboratoire Jean Perrin, UMR 8237 CNRS/Sorbonne Université, 4 Place Jussieu, 75255 Paris Cedex, France.
Daniel Riveline: Laboratory of Cell Physics ISIS/IGBMC, CNRS and University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France; Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Illkirch, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR7104, Illkirch, France; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, U964, Illkirch, France; Université de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France. Electronic address: riveline@unistra.fr.
Directed cell motion is essential in physiological and pathological processes such as morphogenesis, wound healing, and cancer spreading. Chemotaxis has often been proposed as the driving mechanism, even though evidence of long-range gradients is often lacking in vivo. By patterning adhesive regions in space, we control cell shape and the potential to move along one direction in another migration mode coined ratchetaxis. We report that focal contact distributions collectively dictate cell directionality, and bias is non-linearly increased by gap distance between adhesive regions. Focal contact dynamics on micro-patterns allow to integrate these phenomena in a model where each focal contact is translated into a force with known amplitude and direction, leading to quantitative predictions for cell motion in new conditions with their successful experimental tests. Altogether, our study shows how local and minute timescale dynamics of focal adhesions and their distribution lead to long-term cellular motion with simple geometric rules. A record of this paper's Transparent Peer Review process is included in the Supplemental Information.
