ArticleNature materials2021
Investigating the nature of active forces in tissues reveals how contractile cells can form extensile monolayers.
Article in Nature materials, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 58 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 176 citations in OpenAlex.
- Patient-Derived 3D Heart-On-a-Chip Model of Dilated Cardiomyopathy With Embedded Bead-Based Mapping of Tissue Contractility.Advanced healthcare materials · 2026Article
- Extracellular-matrix mediated stresses spatially bias myoblast fusion and myotube growth.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Shape-independent fluidity in epithelial cell monolayers.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Fibronectin matrix remodelling modulates the active nematic dynamics of cancer-associated fibroblasts.Nature materials · 2026Article
- Cell division sets a universal flow geometry in cell layers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Multi-phase field model reveals internal dissipation is crucial for spontaneous hole formation in cell monolayers.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Liquid crystal-like self-organization of glioblastoma is associated with consistent migration for high cell densities.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Force coordination distinguishes epithelial and mesenchymal modes of collective chemotaxis.The Journal of cell biology · 2026Article
- Mechanosensitive dynamics of lysosomes along microtubules regulate leader cell emergence during collective cell migration.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Article
- Myoblast Choreographic Alignment.ACS nano · 2025Article
- Tissue tension of planar, free standing cell monolayers measured by central deformation.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Traction and Stress Control Formation and Motion of +1/2 Topological Defects in Epithelial Cell Monolayers.Newton ((New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Capturing nematic order on tissue surfaces of arbitrary geometry.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Generic comparison of lumen nucleation and fusion in epithelial organoids with and without hydrostatic pressure.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Force transmission is a master regulator of mechanical cell competition.Nature materials · 2025Article
- An Auxin Inducible Degradation System to Study Mklp2 Functions in MDCK Epithelial Cells.Biology of the cell · 2025Article
- Integer topological defects offer a methodology to quantify and classify active cell monolayers.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Active Nematics Reinforce the Ratchet Flow in Dense Environments Without Jamming.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 6 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Actomyosin machinery endows cells with contractility at a single-cell level. However, within a monolayer, cells can be contractile or extensile based on the direction of pushing or pulling forces exerted by their neighbours or on the substrate. It has been shown that a monolayer of fibroblasts behaves as a contractile system while epithelial or neural progentior monolayers behave as an extensile system. Through a combination of cell culture experiments and in silico modelling, we reveal the mechanism behind this switch in extensile to contractile as the weakening of intercellular contacts. This switch promotes the build-up of tension at the cell-substrate interface through an increase in actin stress fibres and traction forces. This is accompanied by mechanotransductive changes in vinculin and YAP activation. We further show that contractile and extensile differences in cell activity sort cells in mixtures, uncovering a generic mechanism for pattern formation during cell competition, and morphogenesis.
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