ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Stick-slip model for actin-driven cell protrusions, cell polarization, and crawling.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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20 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Balanced contractility and adhesion drive polarization in a minimal elastic actomyosin network.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Mechanical Signaling From ECMs to Nuclear Envelopes in Cell Transitions and Fate Decisions: A Review and Perspective on Adhesion-Niche-Based Anti-EndMT and Anti-EMT.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Review
- Modeling actin-microtubule crosstalk in migrating cells.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Multiscale modelling shows how cell-ECM interactions impact ECM fibre alignment and cell detachment.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- A FINITE ELEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR BULK-SURFACE COUPLED PDES TO SOLVE MOVING BOUNDARY PROBLEMS IN BIOPHYSICS.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Galvanotactic directionality of cell groups depends on group size.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Cell-mechanical parameter estimation from 1D cell trajectories using simulation-based inference.PloS one · 2025Article
- Elastic interactions compete with persistent cell motility to drive durotaxis.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Biophysical Modeling of Actin-Mediated Structural Plasticity Reveals Mechanical Adaptation in Dendritic Spines.eNeuro · 2024Article
- Mesenchymal cell migration on one-dimensional micropatterns.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Review
- A continuum mechanical model of cell motion driven by a biphasic traction stress.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- Optimal cell traction forces in a generalized motor-clutch model.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Multiscale models of integrins and cellular adhesions.Current opinion in structural biology · 2023Review
- On multistability and constitutive relations of cell motion on fibronectin lanes.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- A multiscale whole-cell theory for mechanosensitive migration on viscoelastic substrates.Biophysical journal · 2023Article
- Feedback between mechanosensitive signaling and active forces governs endothelial junction integrity.Nature communications · 2022Article
- 3D single cell migration driven by temporal correlation between oscillating force dipoles.eLife · 2022Article
- Generic self-stabilization mechanism for biomolecular adhesions under load.Nature communications · 2022Article
- 1D micro-nanopatterned integrin ligand surfaces for directed cell movement.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- Vesicle shape transformations driven by confined active filaments.Nature communications · 2021Article
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1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cell crawling requires the generation of intracellular forces by the cytoskeleton and their transmission to an extracellular substrate through specific adhesion molecules. Crawling cells show many features of excitable systems, such as spontaneous symmetry breaking and crawling in the absence of external cues, and periodic and propagating waves of activity. Mechanical instabilities in the active cytoskeleton network and feedback loops in the biochemical network of activators and repressors of cytoskeleton dynamics have been invoked to explain these dynamical features. Here, I show that the interplay between the dynamics of cell-substrate adhesion and linear cellular mechanics is sufficient to reproduce many nonlinear dynamical patterns observed in spreading and crawling cells. Using an analytical formalism of the molecular clutch model of cell adhesion, regulated by local mechanical forces, I show that cellular traction forces exhibit stick-slip dynamics resulting in periodic waves of protrusion/retraction and propagating waves along the cell edge. This can explain spontaneous symmetry breaking and polarization of spreading cells, leading to steady crawling or bipedal motion, and bistability, where persistent cell motion requires a sufficiently strong transient external stimulus. The model also highlights the role of membrane tension in providing the long-range mechanical communication across the cell required for symmetry breaking.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.