Cell clusters sense their global shape to drive collective migration

Abstract

The collective migration of epithelial groups of cells plays a central role in processes such as embryo development, wound healing, and cancer invasion. While finite cell clusters are known to collectively migrate in response to external gradients, the competing effect of possible endogenous cues is largely unknown.Here, we demonstrate that the polarization of peripheral cells that pull the cluster's edge outward is sufficient to induce and sustain the collective migration of confluent clusters. We use a general continuum model to show that the underlying shape-sensing mechanism is purely mechanical, relying on long-range hydrodynamic interactions and cell-cell alignment forces. As a proof-of-concept, we validate our findings with experiments on monolayer clusters from various cell lines, where we control initial shapes and sizes. The mechanism operates independently of external signals and will generally interfere with them. Specifically, we predict and observe experimentally that it can override collective durotaxis, reversing the direction of migration. Together, our results offer a physical framework for understanding how cell interactions govern the interplay between global shape and collective motion and afford engineering principles for optimal control and manipulation of cell cluster shape and motion.