Cell movements and mechanical force distribution during the migration of dictyostelium slugs

Differential cell motion: A mathematical model of anterior posterior sorting

Here, we investigate how a subpopulation of cells can move through an aggregate of cells. Using a stochastic force-based model of Dictyostelium discoideum when the population is forming a slug, we simulate different strategies for prestalk cells to reliably move to the front of the slug while omitting interaction with the substrate thus ignoring the overall motion of the slug. Of the mechanisms that we simulated, prestalk cells being more directed is the best strategy followed by increased asymmetric motive forces for prestalk cells. The lifetime of the cell adhesion molecules, while not enough to produce differential motion, did modulate the results of the strategies employed. Finally, understanding and simulating the appropriate boundary conditions are essential to correctly predict the motion.

Calcium responses to external mechanical stimuli in the multicellular stage of Dictyostelium discoideum

Calcium acts as a second messenger to regulate many cellular functions, including cell motility. In Dictyostelium discoideum, the cytosolic calcium level oscillates synchronously, and calcium waves propagate through the cell population during the early stages of development, including aggregation. In the unicellular phase, the calcium response through Piezo channels also functions in mechanosensing. However, calcium dynamics during multicellular morphogenesis are still unclear. Here, live imaging of cytosolic calcium revealed that calcium wave propagation, depending on cAMP relay, disappeared at the onset of multicellular body (slug) formation. Later, other forms of occasional calcium bursts and their propagation were observed in both anterior and posterior regions of migrating slugs. This calcium signaling also occurred in response to mechanical stimuli. Two pathways—calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum via IP3 receptor and calcium influx from outside the cell—were involved in calcium signals induced by mechanical stimuli. These data suggest that calcium signaling is involved in mechanosensing in both the unicellular and multicellular phases of Dictyostelium development using different molecular mechanisms.

Collective cell migration of Dictyostelium without cAMP oscillations at multicellular stages

In Dictyostelium discoideum, a model organism for the study of collective cell migration, extracellular cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) acts as a diffusible chemical guidance cue for cell aggregation, which has been thought to be important in multicellular morphogenesis. Here we revealed that the dynamics of cAMP-mediated signaling showed a transition from propagating waves to steady state during cell development. Live-cell imaging of cytosolic cAMP levels revealed that their oscillation and propagation in cell populations were obvious for cell aggregation and mound formation stages, but they gradually disappeared when multicellular slugs started to migrate. A similar transition of signaling dynamics occurred with phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate signaling, which is upstream of the cAMP signal pathway. This transition was programmed with concomitant developmental progression. We propose a new model in which cAMP oscillation and propagation between cells, which are important at the unicellular stage, are unessential for collective cell migration at the multicellular stage.

Migration of Dictyostelium slugs: anterior-like cells may provide the motive force for the prespore zone

The collective motion of cells in a biological tissue originates from their individual responses to chemical and mechanical signals. The Dictyostelium slug moves as a collective of up to 100,000 cells with prestalk cells in the anterior 10-30% and prespore cells, intermingled with anterior-like cells (AL cells), in the posterior. We used traction force microscopy to measure the forces exerted by migrating slugs. Wild-type slugs exert frictional forces on their substratum in the direction of motion in their anterior, balanced by motive forces dispersed down their length. StlB- mutants lack the signal molecule DIF-1 and hence a subpopulation of AL cells. They produce little if any motive force in their rear and immediately break up. This argues that AL cells, but not prespore cells, are the motive cells in the posterior zone. Slugs also exert large outward radial forces, which we have analyzed during "looping" movement. Each time the anterior touches down after a loop, the outward forces rapidly develop, approximately normal to the almost stationary contact lines. We postulate that these forces result from the immediate binding of the sheath to the substratum and the subsequent application of outward "pressure," which might be developed in several different ways.

Local friction at a sliding interface between an elastomer and a rigid spherical probe

This paper reports on spatially resolved measurements of the shear stress distribution at a frictional interface between a flat rubber substrate and a glass lens. Silicone rubber specimens marked close to their surface by a colored pattern have been prepared in order to measure the surface displacement field induced by the steady-state friction of the spherical probe. The deconvolution of this displacement field then provides the actual shear stress distribution at the contact interface. When a smooth glass lens is used, a nearly constant shear stress is achieved within the contact. On the other hand, a bell-shaped shear stress distribution is obtained with rough lenses. These first results suggest that simple notions of real contact area and constant interface shear stress cannot account for the observed changes in local friction when roughness is varied.

Calcium waves

Waves through living systems are best characterized by their speeds at 20 degrees C. These speeds vary from those of calcium action potentials to those of ultraslow ones which move at 1-10 and/or 10-20 nm s(-1). All such waves are known or inferred to be calcium waves. The two classes of calcium waves which include ones with important morphogenetic effects are slow waves that move at 0.2-2 microm s(-1) and ultraslow ones. Both may be propagated by cycles in which the entry of calcium through the plasma membrane induces subsurface contraction. This contraction opens nearby stretch-sensitive calcium channels. Calcium entry through these channels propagates the calcium wave. Many slow waves are seen as waves of indentation. Some are considered to act via cellular peristalsis; for example, those which seem to drive the germ plasm to the vegetal pole of the Xenopus egg. Other good examples of morphogenetic slow waves are ones through fertilizing maize eggs, through developing barnacle eggs and through axolotl embryos during neural induction. Good examples of ultraslow morphogenetic waves are ones during inversion in developing Volvox embryos and across developing Drosophila eye discs. Morphogenetic waves may be best pursued by imaging their calcium with aequorins.

An iterative method to calculate forces exerted by single cells and multicellular assemblies from the detection of deformations of flexible substrates

We present a new method for quantification of traction forces exerted by migrating single cells and multicellular assemblies from deformations of flexible substrate. It is based on an iterative biconjugate gradient inversion method. We show how the iteration and the solution are influenced by experimental parameters such as the noise on deformations sigma ( XY ), and the mean depth of recorded deformations Z (M). In order to find the validity range of our computational method, we simulated two different patterns of force. The first artificial force pattern mimics the forces exerted by a migrating Dictyostelium slug at a spatial resolution of Delta=20 mum (Rieu et al. in Biophys J 89:3563-3576, 2005) and corresponds to a large and spread force field. The second simulated force pattern mimics forces exerted by a polarized fibroblast at discrete focal adhesion sites separated by Delta=4 microm. Our iterative method allows, without using explicit regularization, the detailed reconstruction of the two investigated patterns when noise is not too high (sigma ( XY )/u (max)< or =6%, where u (max )is the maximal deformation), and when the plane of recorded deformations is close to the surface (Delta/Z (M)> or =4). The method and the required range of parameters are particularly suitable to study forces over large fields such as those observed in multicellular assemblies.

Direct mechanical force measurements during the migration of Dictyostelium slugs using flexible substrata

We use the flexible substrate method to study how and where mechanical forces are exerted during the migration of Dictyostelium slugs. This old and contentious issue has been left poorly understood so far. We are able to identify clearly separate friction forces in the tip and in the tail of the slug, traction forces mostly localized in the inner slug/surface contact area in the prespore region and large perpendicular forces directed in the outward direction at the outline of contact area. Surprisingly, the magnitude of friction and traction forces is decreasing with slug velocity indicating that these quantities are probably related to the dynamics of cell/substrate adhesion complexes. Contrary to what is always assumed in models and simulations, friction is not of fluid type (viscous drag) but rather close to solid friction. We suggest that the slime sheath confining laterally the cell mass of the slug experiences a tension that in turn is pulling out the elastic substrate in the direction tangential to the slug profile where sheath is anchored. In addition, we show in the appendix that the iterative method we developed is well adapted to study forces over large and continuous fields when the experimental error is sufficiently low and when the plane of recorded bead deformations is close enough to the elastomer surface, requirements fulfilled in this experimental study of Dictyostelium slugs.