ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2015
Balance between cell-substrate adhesion and myosin contraction determines the frequency of motility initiation in fish keratocytes.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 122 citations in OpenAlex.
- Balanced contractility and adhesion drive polarization in a minimal elastic actomyosin network.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Nonlinear Stability in a Free Boundary Model of Active Locomotion.Archive for rational mechanics and analysis · 2026Article
- Modeling actin-microtubule crosstalk in migrating cells.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Reduced cell-substrate adhesion formation promotes cell migration inMolecular biology of the cell · 2025Article
- Reduced cell-substrate adhesion formation promotes cell migration inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Durotaxis and extracellular matrix degradation promote the clustering of cancer cells.iScience · 2025Article
- Model supports asymmetric regulation across the intercellular junction for collective cell polarization.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Upregulated TIMP1 facilitates and coordinates myometrial contraction by decreasing collagens and cell adhesive capacity during human labor.Molecular human reproduction · 2023Article
- Friction patterns guide actin network contraction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Crawling, waving, inch worming, dilating, and pivoting mechanics of migrating cells: Lessons from Ken Jacobson.Biophysical journal · 2023Review
- Optimal cell traction forces in a generalized motor-clutch model.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Electric field-guided collective motility initiation of large epidermal cell groups.Molecular biology of the cell · 2023Article
- On multistability and constitutive relations of cell motion on fibronectin lanes.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Wound Healing Insights from Flies and Fish.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in biology · 2022Review
- Article
- Deconstructing the role of myosin contractility in force fluctuations within focal adhesions.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Modeling cell protrusion predicts how myosin II and actin turnover affect adhesion-based signaling.Biophysical journal · 2022Article
- Mechanochemical subcellular-element model of crawling cells.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- Coupling traction force patterns and actomyosin wave dynamics reveals mechanics of cell motion.Molecular systems biology · 2021Article
- Soft Polymer-Based Technique for Cellular Force Sensing.Polymers · 2021Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cells are dynamic systems capable of spontaneously switching among stable states. One striking example of this is spontaneous symmetry breaking and motility initiation in fish epithelial keratocytes. Although the biochemical and mechanical mechanisms that control steady-state migration in these cells have been well characterized, the mechanisms underlying symmetry breaking are less well understood. In this work, we have combined experimental manipulations of cell-substrate adhesion strength and myosin activity, traction force measurements, and mathematical modeling to develop a comprehensive mechanical model for symmetry breaking and motility initiation in fish epithelial keratocytes. Our results suggest that stochastic fluctuations in adhesion strength and myosin localization drive actin network flow rates in the prospective cell rear above a critical threshold. Above this threshold, high actin flow rates induce a nonlinear switch in adhesion strength, locally switching adhesions from gripping to slipping and further accelerating actin flow in the prospective cell rear, resulting in rear retraction and motility initiation. We further show, both experimentally and with model simulations, that the global levels of adhesion strength and myosin activity control the stability of the stationary state: The frequency of symmetry breaking decreases with increasing adhesion strength and increases with increasing myosin contraction. Thus, the relative strengths of two opposing mechanical forces--contractility and cell-substrate adhesion--determine the likelihood of spontaneous symmetry breaking and motility initiation.
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