In single keratocyte motility, membrane tension is reported to be high at cell-fronts and believed to establish front coherence. To understand role of membrane mechanics in collective cell migration, we study membrane height fluctuations in cell sheets from fish scales using interference reflection microscopy (IRM). We report the monolayer to have cells lacking substrate adhesion and show that such “non-sticky” cells can form bridges between leader cells and far-away follower cells. Do such interactions alter motility and membrane mechanics in such leaders? We find non-significant, but reduced speed for leaders with “non-sticky” followers in comparison to other leaders. Cells show high phenotypic variability in their membrane fluctuation tension profiles. On average, this tension is found to be lower at cell fronts than the mid-section. However, leaders with non-sticky followers are more prone to display higher tension at their front and have a negative correlation between cell speed and front-mid tension difference. We, thus, conclude that intracellular tension gradients are heterogeneous in cell sheets and substrate adhesivity of followers can control the coupling of the gradient to cell speed.
Effect of heterogeneous substrate adhesivity of follower cells on speed and tension profile of leader cells in primary keratocyte collective cell migration
Authors who contributed equally to the work
Present address: Bellini Life Sciences Complex. 3649 Promenade Sir William Osler, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 0B1, Canada
Present address: Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, 5A Engineering Drive, Singapore 117411
- Award Group:
- Funder(s): Science and Engineering Research Board
- Award Id(s): SERB_CRG_2458
- Funder(s):
- Award Group:
- Funder(s): The Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance
- Award Id(s): IA/I/13/1/500885
- Funder(s):
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Madhura Chakraborty, Baishali Mukherjee, Nanditha N, Arikta Biswas, Rajesh Kumble Nayak, Bidisha Sinha; Effect of heterogeneous substrate adhesivity of follower cells on speed and tension profile of leader cells in primary keratocyte collective cell migration. Biol Open 2022; bio.058893. doi: https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.058893
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