Modeling and analysis of collective cell migration in an in vivo three-dimensional environment.

ABSTRACT: A long-standing question in collective cell migration has been what might be the relative advantage of forming a cluster over migrating individually. Does an increase in the size of a collectively migrating group of cells enable them to sample the chemical gradient over a greater distance because the difference between front and rear of a cluster would be greater than for single cells? We combined theoretical modeling with experiments to study collective migration of the border cells in-between nurse cells in the Drosophila egg chamber. We discovered that cluster size is positively correlated with migration speed, up to a particular point above which speed plummets. This may be due to the effect of viscous drag from surrounding nurse cells together with confinement of all of the cells with

SUBMITTER: Cai D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4839456 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature