Cell migration articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pten is a tumour suppressor gene that is associated with highly invasive cancers such as glioblastoma. Here the authors show that PTEN loss results in increased migratory behaviour, which can be countered by targeting AMPK activity.

    • Florent Peglion
    • , Lavinia Capuana
    •  & Sandrine Etienne-Manneville

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are believed to be pathogenic molecules that mediate pro-inflammatory responses. Here the authors identify histone as a cell-surface receptor for AGEs and show that AGEs may also be involved in the homeostatic response via binding to histone.

    • Masanori Itakura
    • , Kosuke Yamaguchi
    •  & Koji Uchida

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plasmodium gametes and sporozoites activate surface-bound plasminogen to plasmin that degrades extracellular matrix barriers, therewith facilitating parasite motility in mosquitoes and mammalian hosts. To control malaria transmission, Pascini et al. generate Anopheles stephensi transgenic mosquitoes constitutively secreting human plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 in midgut and/or saliva which leads to inhibition of plasminogen activation and a reduction in oocyst intensity, infection prevalence, and transmission.

    • Tales V. Pascini
    • , Yeong Je Jeong
    •  & Joel Vega-Rodríguez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nucleus connects to the actin cytoskeleton for nuclear movement in migrating cells. Here, the authors show that the endoplasmic reticulum shields actin cables to generate asymmetric nucleo-cytoskeleton connections for nuclear positioning.

    • Cátia Silva Janota
    • , Andreia Pinto
    •  & Edgar R. Gomes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nucleotides are essential for different biological processes and have been also associated to cancer development. Depleting cellular nucleotides is a strategy commonly employed to target cancers. Here, the authors show that purine depletion induces serine synthesis to promote cancer cell migration and metastasis.

    • Mona Hoseini Soflaee
    • , Rushendhiran Kesavan
    •  & Gerta Hoxhaj

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical and mechanical cues coordinately regulate angiogenesis. Here, the authors show that blood flow-driven intraluminal pressure regulates wound angiogenesis. Findings indicate that TOCA family of F-BAR proteins act as actin regulators required for endothelial cell migration and sense mechanical cell stretching to regulate wound angiogenesis.

    • Shinya Yuge
    • , Koichi Nishiyama
    •  & Shigetomo Fukuhara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors report here that talin and kindlin, the two key integrin binders and activators, are bridged by paxillin to induce microclustering of integrins to potently bind to multivalent extracellular ligand and trigger rapid cell attachment.

    • Fan Lu
    • , Liang Zhu
    •  & Jun Qin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Programmed death-1 (PD-1) and its ligand PD-L1 are critical checkpoints in the regulation of immune responses. Here the authors implicate PD-L1 signalling at lymphatic endothelium in the regulation of transendothelial migration of T cells.

    • Wenji Piao
    • , Lushen Li
    •  & Jonathan S. Bromberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

     The Arp2/3 complex inhibitor Arpin controls cell migration by interrupting a feedback loop involving Rac-WAVE-Arp2/3 complex Here, the authors use structural, biochemical, and cellular studies to reveal Arpin’s mechanism of inhibition.

    • Fred E. Fregoso
    • , Trevor van Eeuwen
    •  & Roberto Dominguez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    African trypanosomes collectively move in a process called social motility. Here, the authors show that procyclic forms acidify their environment as a consequence of glucose metabolism, generating pH gradients by diffusion that are sensed via cyclic AMP signalling. Parasite mutants defective in cAMP signaling are inhibited in fly infection.

    • Sebastian Shaw
    • , Sebastian Knüsel
    •  & Isabel Roditi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The ability to visualise stochastic invasion events is limited in murine models of metastatic cancers. Here the authors use a transparent zebrafish epidermis model to follow the invasion events of K-Ras transformed epithelial cells and show that these cells invade through basal cell extrusion.

    • John Fadul
    • , Teresa Zulueta-Coarasa
    •  & Jody Rosenblatt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neutrophils migrate with remarkably stable front-rear polarization. Using optogenetic receptor control to induce reversal of polarization in restrictive microfluidic channels, the authors find that myosin II promotes this stability by suppressing transmission of receptor inputs at the cell rear.

    • Amalia Hadjitheodorou
    • , George R. R. Bell
    •  & Julie A. Theriot

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The way in which metastatic tumour cells control endocytic vesicular trafficking networks to establish a front-rear polarity axis that facilitates motility remains unclear. Here, the authors show that the EMT activator ZEB1 influences vesicular trafficking dynamics to execute cell polarity change.

    • Priyam Banerjee
    • , Guan-Yu Xiao
    •  & Jonathan M. Kurie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Changes in cell mechanics contribute to cancer cell dissemination. Here the authors show that high plasma membrane (PM) tension inhibits cancer dissemination by counteracting mechanosensitive BAR family protein assembly, while restoration of PM tension phenotypically convert malignant cells into a non-motile epithelial cell state.

    • Kazuya Tsujita
    • , Reiko Satow
    •  & Toshiki Itoh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cell migration is essential for many physiological processes. Its deregulation causes cancer metastasis and it is not well understood how it is tightly controlled. We identify NHSL1 as a negative regulator of actin nucleating Scar/WAVE-Arp2/3 complexes, cell protrusion stability, and cell migration.

    • Ah-Lai Law
    • , Shamsinar Jalal
    •  & Matthias Krause

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear how bacterial cells adapt the reversible switching of flagellar motor rotation to environments of different viscosities. Here, Antani et al. show that flagellar mechanosensors allosterically control the motor’s binding affinity for the chemotaxis response regulator, CheY-P, to adapt flagellar switching over varying viscous loads.

    • Jyot D. Antani
    • , Rachit Gupta
    •  & Pushkar P. Lele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The assembly of branched actin networks depends on the heterodimeric capping protein CP/CapZ. Combining cryoEM, in vitro reconstitution and cell biological assays, the authors show that CP not only prevents actin filament elongation but also selectively masks actin filament ends to promote nucleation.

    • Johanna Funk
    • , Felipe Merino
    •  & Peter Bieling

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cells locally expand and retract their surface in response to environmental factors such as changes in membrane tension. Here the authors show the membrane adapter, dynamin2, locally constricts surface membrane to form an isolated but contiguous membrane reservoir that can open upon phospholipid scrambling via TMEM16F.

    • Christine Deisl
    • , Donald W. Hilgemann
    •  & Michael Fine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Environmental and genetic risk factors affect the distal airway epithelium in idiopatic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) but the role of the epithelium in IPF remains unclear. Here the authors show that pathologic activation of the ERBB-YAP axis induces dynamic and structural dysfunction in the distal airway epithelium eliciting a pro-fibrotic phenotype in mesenchymal cells.

    • Ian T. Stancil
    • , Jacob E. Michalski
    •  & David A. Schwartz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cells can modify their environment by depositing biochemical signals or mechanically remodelling the extracellular matrix; the impact of such self-induced environmental perturbations on cell trajectories at various scales remains unexplored. Here authors show that motile cells leave long-lived physicochemical footprints along their way, which determine their future path.

    • Joseph d’Alessandro
    • , Alex Barbier--Chebbah
    •  & Benoît Ladoux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Myosin II–mediated contractility is required for leukocyte migration. Here, authors show that lysosomes are involved in leukocyte migration by providing the platform where Ragulator complex interacts with the myosin phosphatase Rho-interacting protein (MPRIP) independently of mTORC1 and interferes with the interaction between MPRIP and a subunit of myosin light chain phosphatase (MLCP).

    • Takeshi Nakatani
    • , Kohei Tsujimoto
    •  & Atsushi Kumanogoh

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Communication between endothelial leader and follower cells during collective cell migration is crucial for vascular development. Here, the authors show that PACSIN2 guides collective cell migration and angiogenesis by recruiting a protein trafficking complex to asymmetric cell-cell junctions, controlling local junction plasticity.

    • Tsveta S. Malinova
    • , Ana Angulo-Urarte
    •  & Stephan Huveneers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The absence of scaffold protein Ambra1 leads to hyperproliferation and growth in mouse models. Here the authors show that Ambra1 deficiency accelerates melanoma growth and increases metastasis in mouse models of melanoma through FAK1 hyperactivation.

    • Luca Di Leo
    • , Valérie Bodemeyer
    •  & Francesco Cecconi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Contact stimulation of migration drives tissue morphogenesis. Here the authors report that filopodia-based contact-dependent asymmetry of cell–matrix adhesion drives directional movement, whereas contractile actin cables contribute to the integrity of the migrating cell cluster in the myotubes of Drosophila developing testes.

    • Maik C. Bischoff
    • , Sebastian Lieb
    •  & Sven Bogdan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cytoplasm in mammalian cells is considered homogeneous. Here authors report that the cytoplasmic fluidity is regulated in the blebbing cells, which is regulated by calcium concentration in the expanding blebs and involves the STIM-Orai1 pathway.

    • Kana Aoki
    • , Shota Harada
    •  & Junichi Ikenouchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mesodermal directional cell migration is needed to establish body plan but how this is regulated is unclear. Here, the authors show that loss of the guanine nucleotide exchange factor for Rac1 and Cdc42, β-Pix, at mouse gastrulation disrupts the orderly, collective anterior migration of mesoderm cells due to defective cell protrusions.

    • Tatiana Omelchenko
    • , Alan Hall
    •  & Kathryn V. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The assembly of actin filaments into distinct cytoskeletal structures plays a critical role in cell physiology. Here, the authors use a combination of live cell imaging and in vitro single molecule binding measurements to show that tandem calponin homology domains (CH1–CH2) are sensitive to actin filament conformation, biasing their subcellular localization.

    • Andrew R. Harris
    • , Pamela Jreij
    •  & Daniel A. Fletcher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Breakdown of vascular barriers is a major complication of inflammatory diseases. However, the mechanisms underlying platelet recruitment to inflammatory micro-environments remains unclear. Here, the authors identify haptotaxis as a key effector function of immune-responsive platelets

    • Leo Nicolai
    • , Karin Schiefelbein
    •  & Florian Gaertner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In neural development, progenitors transition from a proliferative to a differentiated state. Here, the authors show that cerebellar granule neurons retract primary cilia as they exit their proliferative niche upon decreased ECM engagement, enabling radial migration due to loss of Shh sensitivity.

    • Taren Ong
    • , Niraj Trivedi
    •  & David J. Solecki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During repair, development, or cancer metastasis, epithelial cells can become migratory through partial or full epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Here, the authors report that differentiated epithelial collectives may undergo cooperative and collective migration without evidence of partial EMT through an unjamming transition (UJT).

    • Jennifer A. Mitchel
    • , Amit Das
    •  & Jin-Ah Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In vivo, cells migrate across a diverse landscape of extracellular matrix containing gaps which present a challenge for cells to protrude across. Here, the authors show that T-Plastin strengthens protrusive actin networks to promote protrusion, extracellular matrix gap-bridging, and cell migration.

    • Damien Garbett
    • , Anjali Bisaria
    •  & Tobias Meyer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During development, primordial germ cell clusters undergo dispersal but how cell–cell adhesion and contractility are coordinated during this process in vivo is unclear. Here, the authors show that Drosophila primordial germ cells utilize migratory forces to disperse through G-protein coupled receptor mediated collective guidance of front-back polarity outwards from the cluster.

    • B. Lin
    • , J. Luo
    •  & R. Lehmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Migration and homing of B cells to lymph nodes are important for B cell functions, but their regulation is poorly understood. Here, the authors show that B cell-specific deletion of Cosmc results in decreased protein O-glycosylation, loss of B cell homing to both lymphoid and nonlymphoid organs, and altered transendothelial migration implicated in this loss.

    • Junwei Zeng
    • , Mahmoud Eljalby
    •  & Richard D. Cummings

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drosophila tumours can be utilised to study the mechanisms of cell dissemination. Here, the authors use Drosophila midgut to examine the course of RasV12-transformed cell dissemination from midgut into circulation, which requires the actions of invasive protrusions and the mechanosensitive channel Piezo.

    • Jiae Lee
    • , Alejandra J. H. Cabrera
    •  & Young V. Kwon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear if genetic alterations in endocytic proteins play a causal role in high incidence human cancers. Here, the authors report the oncogenic role of Epsin3 (EPN3) in breast cancer, and show EPN3 to drive tumorigenesis through induction of a partial epithelial mesenchymal transition state and a TGFβ-dependent regulatory loop that promotes cellular plasticity and invasive behaviour.

    • Irene Schiano Lomoriello
    • , Giovanni Giangreco
    •  & Pier Paolo Di Fiore

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