Plithotaxis

Fragile cells trekking rugged landscape make for resilient monolayers

During collective migration, the cells migrate over a rugged stress landscape (colored topography of average normal stress, -50Pa to 350Pa), and direct their motion along the local orientation of highest monolayer tension (long axis of blue ellipses).  Cell navigation on this scale – plithotaxis – is innately collective, strongly cooperative, and dynamically glassy.

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