Shellard, A;
Weißenbruch, K;
Hampshire, PAE;
Stillman, NR;
Dix, CL;
Thorogate, R;
Imbert, A;
... Mayor, R; + view all
(2025)
Frictiotaxis underlies focal adhesion-independent durotaxis.
Nature Communications
, 16
, Article 3811. 10.1038/s41467-025-58912-1.
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Abstract
Cells move directionally along gradients of substrate stiffness — a process called durotaxis. In the situations studied so far, durotaxis relies on cell-substrate focal adhesions to sense stiffness and transmit forces that drive directed motion. However, whether and how durotaxis can take place in the absence of focal adhesions remains unclear. Here, we show that confined cells can perform durotaxis despite lacking focal adhesions. This durotactic migration depends on an asymmetric myosin distribution and actomyosin retrograde flow. We propose that the mechanism of this focal adhesion-independent durotaxis is that stiffer substrates offer higher friction. We put forward a physical model that predicts that non-adherent cells polarise and migrate towards regions of 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. Our results broaden the potential of durotaxis to guide any cell that contacts a substrate, and they reveal a mode of directed migration based on friction. These findings have implications for cell migration during development, immune response and cancer progression, which usually takes place in confined environments that favour adhesion-independent amoeboid migration.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Frictiotaxis underlies focal adhesion-independent durotaxis |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41467-025-58912-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58912-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Focal Adhesions, Cell Movement, Friction, Actomyosin, Animals, Cell Adhesion, Humans, Models, Biological, Myosins, Dictyostelium |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Cell and Developmental Biology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > London Centre for Nanotechnology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209690 |
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