Actin flows mediate a universal coupling between cell speed and cell persistence

Paolo Maiuri, Jean-Francois Rupprecht, Stefan Wieser, Verena Ruprecht, Olivier Benichou, Nicolas Carpi, Mathieu Coppey, Simon De Beco, Nir Gov, Carl-Philipp Heisenberg, Carolina Lage Crespo, Franziska Lautenschlaeger, Maeil Le Berre, Ana-Maria Lennon-Dumenil, Matthew Raab, Hawa-Racine Thiam, Matthieu Piel, Michael Sixt, Raphael Voituriez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Cell movement has essential functions in development, immunity, and cancer. Various cell migration patterns have been reported, but no general rule has emerged so far. Here, we show on the basis of experimental data in vitro and in vivo that cell persistence, which quantifies the straightness of trajectories, is robustly coupled to cell migration speed. We suggest that this universal coupling constitutes a generic law of cell migration, which originates in the advection of polarity cues by an actin cytoskeleton undergoing flows at the cellular scale. Our analysis relies on a theoretical model that we validate by measuring the persistence of cells upon modulation of actin flow speeds and upon optogenetic manipulation of the binding of an actin regulator to actin filaments. Beyond the quantitative prediction of the coupling, the model yields a generic phase diagram of cellular trajectories, which recapitulates the full range of observed migration patterns.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)374-386
Number of pages13
JournalCell
Volume161
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Apr 2015

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology

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