Mechanotaxis and cell motility

Pierre Recho; Thibault Putelat; Lev Truskinovsky

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arXiv · 1302.3999

Mechanotaxis and cell motility

Pierre Recho·Thibault Putelat·Lev Truskinovsky

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Abstract

We propose a mechanism of cell motility which is based on contraction and does not require protrusion. The contraction driven translocation of a cell is due to internal flow of the cytoskeleton generated by molecular motors. Each motor contributes to the stress field and simultaneously undergoes biased random motion in the direction of a higher value of this stress. In this way active cross-linkers use passive actin network as a medium through which they interact and self-organize. The model exhibits motility initiation pattern similar to the one observed in experiments on keratocytes.

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Pierre Recho, Thibault Putelat, Lev Truskinovsky. 2013-02-16. Mechanotaxis and cell motility. https://arxiv.org/abs/1302.3999

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