Golgi polarity does not correlate with speed or persistence of freely migrating fibroblasts

The polarization of the Golgi has long been thought to be important for cell migration. Here we show that Rat2 cells at the edge of an artificial wound repolarize the Golgi relative to the nucleus to face the direction of migration into the wound. However, in the absence of cues from neighboring cells, individual cells do not display Golgi polarity relative to the direction in which they are moving. Instead, the positioning of the Golgi relative to the nucleus remains relatively constant over time and does not reflect changes in the direction of migration. Consistent with this observation, we observe only a slight bias in Golgi positioning to the front of the nucleus, and this bias is not higher during periods of time when the cell is moving in a persistent manner. Taken together, these data suggest that Golgi polarity is not a requirement for cell migration.