Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 18, 2025
10:53
Traction Microscopy Integrated with Microfluidics for Chemotactic Collective Migration
Published on: October 13, 2019
7.2K
Cell migration during development: Is it always collective and never as a single cell?
Jorge Diaz1, Amrutha Patkunarajah1, Roberto Mayor1
1Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Anatomy Building, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Current Topics in Developmental Biology
|June 26, 2025
Summary
Cell migration is crucial for development, with both single-cell and collective modes playing key roles. Even single cells exhibit collective coordination during tissue formation, highlighting complex cell interactions.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Cell Biology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Cell migration is vital for homeostasis, disease, and development.
- Understanding migration mechanisms is key to developmental biology.
Purpose of the Study:
- Review mechanisms of single-cell and collective cell migration.
- Highlight roles in early development and supracellular organization.
- Investigate cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions in migration.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of cell migration mechanisms.
- Analysis of classical developmental models.
- Examination of zebrafish and Drosophila melanogaster migration examples.
Main Results:
- Identified amoeboid and mesenchymal migration characteristics.
- Illustrated single-cell (primordial germ cells) and collective migration (lateral line, border cells).
- Highlighted supracellular organization and actomyosin cables in coordinated movement.
Conclusions:
- Cell migration involves complex interactions and cues.
- Even single-cell migration shows collective coordination.
- Cells migrate collectively during complex tissue and organ development.
Related Concept Videos
01:19Cell Migration
5.2K
Cell migration is a process by which the cells move from one location to another, playing an essential role in embryological development, repair and regeneration, immune response, and metastasis. Cells migrate in response to chemical or mechanical signals generated by specific organs or tissues. The overall mechanism includes three steps - polarization, protrusion, and release. Polarization involves the formation of a distinct cell front and rear, which determines the direction of movement.
5.2K
01:56Gastrulation
58.8K
Gastrulation establishes the three primary tissues of an embryo: the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. This developmental process relies on a series of intricate cellular movements, which in humans transforms a flat, “bilaminar disc” composed of two cell sheets into a three-tiered structure. In the resulting embryo, the endoderm serves as the bottom layer, and stacked directly above it is the intermediate mesoderm, and then the uppermost ectoderm. Respectively, these tissue strata...
58.8K
01:32Cytoskeletal Coordination in Cell Migration
4.9K
A migrating cell changes its shape during the cyclic events of attachment and detachment from the substratum and repositions the cell organelles correspondingly. These complex events are orchestrated by the dynamic cytoskeletal network comprising actin filaments, intermediate filaments, and microtubules. Cytoskeletal crosstalk — the direct and indirect communication between the different components — is crucial for this coordination. Direct communication involves various linker...
4.9K
01:21Chemotaxis and Direction of Cell Migration
3.5K
Cells can detect chemical cues in their environment and reorganize the cytoskeleton to migrate toward them or away from them. This directional migration, called chemotaxis, is essential during embryogenesis and development, immune response, tissue repair and regeneration, and reproduction. These chemical cues can either attract or repel the cell's movement. For example, axon development is determined by a combination of chemoattractants and chemorepellents that direct the growing axon...
3.5K
01:18Role of Myosin in Cell Migration
2.5K
Myosins are multimeric motor proteins involved in various cellular processes such as migration, adhesion, and proliferation. Myosin II is the most common type in animal cells, which binds and cross-links actin filaments.
Myosin II is a hexamer comprising two heavy chains with globular heads and coiled-coil tails, two regulatory light chains, and two essential light chains. The ATPase sites on the myosin heads hydrolyze ATP, and the released phosphate generates the force for contraction....
Myosin II is a hexamer comprising two heavy chains with globular heads and coiled-coil tails, two regulatory light chains, and two essential light chains. The ATPase sites on the myosin heads hydrolyze ATP, and the released phosphate generates the force for contraction....
2.5K
01:21Cell Polarization by Rho Proteins
2.8K
Cell polarity is the asymmetric distribution of cellular and membrane components, making one side of the cell different from the other. This polarity is essential to many processes such as embryogenesis, axon migration, glucose transport across epithelial cells, and directional cell migration. A migrating cell responds to intracellular or extracellular signals via molecular cascades that reorganize the actin cytoskeleton to establish this polarity. In these cells, the Rho family proteins Cdc42,...
2.8K