Motility articles within Nature Physics

Featured

  • Letter |

    Antiparallel streams of nematically oriented cells arise in both embryonic development and cancer. In vitro experiments and a hydrodynamic active gel theory suggest that these cells are subject to a transition that is driven by their activity.

    • G. Duclos
    • , C. Blanch-Mercader
    •  & P. Silberzan

  • Article |

    Interactions between cells can affect the way they migrate, impacting processes like cancer invasion and wound healing. Experiments on cell colonies of moderate density show that these interactions can enhance motility by increasing persistence.

    • Joseph d’Alessandro
    • , Alexandre P. Solon
    •  & Charlotte Rivière

  • News & Views |

    A curious peak in the distribution describing stochastic switching in bacterial motility had researchers confounded. But a careful study performed under varying mechanical conditions has now revealed that the breaking of detailed balance is to blame.

    • Yuhai Tu

  • Letter |

    Spindle-shaped cells readily form nematic structures marked by topological defects. When confined, the defect distribution is independent of the domain size, activity and type of cell, lending a stability not found in non-cellular active nematics.

    • Guillaume Duclos
    • , Christoph Erlenkämper
    •  & Pascal Silberzan

  • Article |

    Cell motility is typically described as a random walk due to the presence of noise. But a dynamical model suggests that dendritic cells move deterministically, alternating between fast and slow motility, and exhibiting periodic polarity reversals.

    • Ido Lavi
    • , Matthieu Piel
    •  & Nir S. Gov

  • Letter |

    Hydrodynamic coupling induces a vortex state in bacterial populations. Microfluidic experiments and modelling now demonstrate that lattices of these vortices can self-organize into patterns characterized by ferro- and antiferromagnetic order.

    • Hugo Wioland
    • , Francis G. Woodhouse
    •  & Raymond E. Goldstein

  • Article |

    Cells moving in a tissue undergo a rigidity transition resembling that of active particles jamming at a critical density—but the tissue density stays constant. A new type of rigidity transition implicates the physical properties of the cells.

    • Dapeng Bi
    • , J. H. Lopez
    •  & M. Lisa Manning

  • News & Views |

    A cable-like ring of biopolymers helps to pull cells together across the site of a wound. Widely thought to be homogeneous, the traction forces involved are actually remarkably heterogeneous — revealing an unexpected pattern of force generation during wound repair.

    • Miranda V. Hunter
    •  & Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez

  • Article |

    Wound repair is thought to involve cell migration and the contraction of a tissue-level biopolymer ring—invoking analogy with the pulling of purse strings. Traction-force measurements now show that this ring engages the tissue's surroundings to steer migration, prompting revision of the purse-string mechanism.

    • Agustí Brugués
    • , Ester Anon
    •  & Xavier Trepat

  • News & Views |

    In their search for more favourable environments bacteria choose new directions to explore, usually at random. In a marine bacterium with a single polar flagellum it is now shown that this quest is enhanced by a buckling instability.

    • Howard C. Berg

  • Letter |

    Buckling is often regarding as a form of mechanical failure to be avoided. High-speed video microscopy and mechanical stability theory now show, however, that bacteria use such processes to their advantage. Cells propelled with a single flagellum change direction with a flick-like motion that exploits a buckling instability.

    • Kwangmin Son
    • , Jeffrey S. Guasto
    •  & Roman Stocker

  • News & Views |

    Migrating cells are capable of actively opposing external forces. A study of the polymers that mediate cell motility indicates that they effect this response by branching where bent under force.

    • Anders E. Carlsson

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