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Traction forces at the cytokinetic ring regulate cell division and polyploidy in the migrating zebrafish epicardium

Nature Materials volume 18, pages 1015–1023 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Epithelial repair and regeneration are driven by collective cell migration and division. Both cellular functions involve tightly controlled mechanical events, but how physical forces regulate cell division in migrating epithelia is largely unknown. Here we show that cells dividing in the migrating zebrafish epicardium exert large cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) forces during cytokinesis. These forces point towards the division axis and are exerted through focal adhesions that connect the cytokinetic ring to the underlying ECM. When subjected to high loading rates, these cytokinetic focal adhesions prevent closure of the contractile ring, leading to multi-nucleation through cytokinetic failure. By combining a clutch model with experiments on substrates of different rigidity, ECM composition and ligand density, we show that failed cytokinesis is triggered by adhesion reinforcement downstream of increased myosin density. The mechanical interaction between the cytokinetic ring and the ECM thus provides a mechanism for the regulation of cell division and polyploidy that may have implications in regeneration and cancer.

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Fig. 1: Zebrafish epicardium uses an unconventional mechanism of collective migration.
Fig. 2: Mechanics of epicardial migration.
Fig. 3: Epicardial cells exert traction forces during cytokinesis.
Fig. 4: A large number of cells are multinucleated due to cytokinetic failure.
Fig. 5: Reinforcement of CFAs leads to cytokinetic failure.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

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Code used in this Article can be made available upon request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Castro and C. Garcia-Pastor for technical assistance, C. Norden, E. Martí and K. Poss for sharing mutant zebrafish and J. Muñoz’s custom FEM-platform EMBRYO, which has been utilized to implement the numerical model. M.U., A.G.-P. and I.T. were partially supported by pre-doctoral fellowships from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness ((MINECO)/FEDER BES-2013-062633, BES-2013-064698 and FPU-AP2010-5071, respectively). This work was supported by MINECO/FEDER (BFU2016-79916-P and BFU2014-52586-REDT to P.R.-C., BFU2015-65074-P to X.T., SAF2015-69706-R to A.R., BFU2016-75101-P and RYC-2014-15559 to V.C.), the Generalitat de Catalunya (2014-SGR-927 to X.T., 2014-SGR-1460 and PERIS SLT002/16/00234 to A.R. and the CERCA Programme), Instituto de Salud Carlos III-ISCIII/FEDER (Red de Terapia Celular—TerCel RD16/0011/0024 to A.R.), the European Research Council (CoG-616480 to X.T.), the European Commission (grant agreeement SEP-210342844 to P.R.-C. and X.T.), Obra Social ‘La Caixa’, and the prize ICREA Academia for excellence in research (P.R.-C.). IBEC is recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology (BIST), Barcelona, Spain

    Marina Uroz, Alberto Elosegui-Artola, Juan F. Abenza, Ariadna Marín-Llauradó, Silvia Pujals, Vito Conte, Lorenzo Albertazzi, Pere Roca-Cusachs & Xavier Trepat

  2. Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona (CMRB), Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Garcia-Puig, Isil Tekeli & Ángel Raya

  3. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Bioingeniería, Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Barcelona, Spain

    Anna Garcia-Puig, Isil Tekeli, Ángel Raya & Xavier Trepat

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands

    Vito Conte & Lorenzo Albertazzi

  5. University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Pere Roca-Cusachs & Xavier Trepat

  6. Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain

    Ángel Raya & Xavier Trepat

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Contributions

M.U., A.R. and X.T. conceived the study and designed experiments. M.U., A.G.-P., I.T., J.F.A. and A.M.-L. performed experiments. M.U. and A.E.-A. analysed data. A.E.-A., V.C. and P.R.-C. carried out theoretical modelling. M.U., S.P. and L.A. carried out STORM imaging. All authors discussed the results. M.U. and X.T. wrote the manuscript with feedback from all authors. X.T. oversaw the project.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xavier Trepat.

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Ethics

All experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations, and conducted following procedures approved by the Ethics Committee on Experimental Animals of the PRBB (CEEA-PRBB).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–4, Supplementary Video Captions 1–10, Supplementary Table 1

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Collective cell migration of a monolayer of epicardial cells explanting from the heart

Supplementary Video 2

Myosin dynamics during cell migration (cells expressing Myosin-GFP)

Supplementary Video 3

Myosin dynamics with tractions overlaid after a follower cell spontaneously dies

Supplementary Video 4

Phase contrast images of a monolayer of epicardial cells with overlaid tractions

Supplementary Video 5

Tractions during a successful division overlaid on phase contrast images

Supplementary Video 6

Tractions during a successful division overlaid on myosin-GFP images

Supplementary Video 7

Paxillin-GFP during a successful cell division

Supplementary Video 8

Tractions during a failed division overlaid on myosin-GFP images

Supplementary Video 9

Paxillin images during a failed cell division

Supplementary Video 10

Calculation of average traction and myosin intensity

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Uroz, M., Garcia-Puig, A., Tekeli, I. et al. Traction forces at the cytokinetic ring regulate cell division and polyploidy in the migrating zebrafish epicardium. Nat. Mater. 18, 1015–1023 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0381-9

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