Contributed Talk

Frictiotaxis underlies adhesion-independent durotaxis

Adam Shellard¹, Peter Hampshire^2,3, Namid Stillman¹, Christina Dix⁴, Richard Thorogate¹, Albane Imbert⁴, Guillaume Charras¹, Ricard Alert^2,3, Roberto Mayor¹

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Cells migrate along gradients of substrate stiffness — a process called durotaxis. The physical explanation for durotaxis relies on focal adhesions transmitting the cell’s contractile forces to the substrate. Combining experiments and theory, I will show that confined cells can perform durotaxis despite lacking strong or specific adhesions. We show that the mechanism of this adhesion-independent durotaxis is based on the fact that stiffer substrate offers higher friction. We develop a physical model that predicts that non-adherent cells polarize and migrate towards higher friction — a process that we call frictiotaxis. We demonstrate frictiotaxis in experiments by showing that cells migrate up a friction gradient even when stiffness is uniform. These results broaden the potential of durotaxis to guide any cell that contacts a substrate. Our work also reveals a new mode of directed migration based on friction, with implications for immune and cancer cells, which commonly move with non-specific interactions.