title: Propulsion and navigation within the advancing monolayer sheet.
abstract: As a wound heals, or a body plan forms, or a tumour invades, observed cellular motions within the advancing cell swarm are thought to stem from yet to be observed physical stresses that act in some direct and causal mechanical fashion. Here we show that such a relationship between motion and stress is far from direct. Using monolayer stress microscopy, we probed migration velocities, cellular tractions and intercellular stresses in an epithelial cell sheet advancing towards an island on which cells cannot adhere. We found that cells located near the island exert tractions that pull systematically towards this island regardless of whether the cells approach the island, migrate tangentially along its edge, or paradoxically, recede from it. This unanticipated cell-patterning motif, which we call kenotaxis, represents the robust and systematic mechanical drive of the cellular collective to fill unfilled space.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Jae Hun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Serra-Picamal
authors.forename: Dhananjay T
authors.identifier: 0000000265346577
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Tambe
authors.forename: Enhua H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Chan Young
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Monirosadat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sadati
authors.forename: Jin-Ah
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Ramaswamy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Krishnan
authors.forename: Bomi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gweon
authors.forename: Emil
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Millet
authors.forename: James P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Trepat
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Fredberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002465:Cell Movement; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008954:Models, Biological; D051381:Rats; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013312:Stress, Physiological