Balanced contractility and adhesion drive polarization in a minimal elastic actomyosin network

The useful part

Verkhovsky Polarization of migrating cells involves chemical and mechanical interactions of signaling networks, cytoskeleton, plasma membrane, and substrate adhesions. Still, it is not fully understood which mechanisms and components are sufficient for symmetry breaking, and if they work independently or together. Here, we use a discrete active network model to investigate if and how an elastic cytoskeletal network is capable of breaking symmetry solely through mechanical interactions.

How it works

• These results demonstrate how directed motion can emerge as an intrinsic property of a simple mechanical network, independently of external cues or complex signaling networks.
• Given the concordance between this model and recent experimental findings, we suggest that polarization by contraction-adhesion dynamics could be a fundamental emergent behavior of actin-myosin networks.
• Our minimal model consists of elastic bonds, attractive force dipoles, and force-sensitive anchor points, initially distributed uniformly and subject to simple turnover rules.
• We find that these features are sufficient to produce different cell behaviors, and, remarkably, to drive symmetry breaking and directed (polarized) motion.
• At high turnover rates, forces were unable to build up to sufficiently high levels, while at low turnover rates, anchors hindered motion.