Fig. 1: Intercellular force transmission capabilities provide a competitive advantage.
From: Force transmission is a master regulator of mechanical cell competition
a, Monolayer of patient-derived metaplastic cancer cells. The E-cad+ (magenta) and vimentin-positive (cyan) sub-populations sort completely. b, Cluster development. The red line shows cell clusters after 20 h. c, Top: mixed culture of MDCK WT (grey) and MDCK E-cad KO (green, fluorescently labelled with LifeAct-GFP) cells. Bottom: area occupied by E-cad KO cells being in minority (green), majority (blue) or after the collision of two fully sorted populations (magenta). Collision assay realized through model wounds. n = 8 videos from N = 3 independent experiments (Minority); n = 6, N = 3 (Majority); n = 4, N = 2 (Collision). d, Top: mixed-culture E-cad KO cells (green) and E-cad/cadherin 6 dKO cells (grey). Bottom: area of E-cad KO cells competing against WT (blue) or dKO (green) cells. n = 6 videos from N = 3 independent experiments (versus WT); n = 8, N = 2 (versus dKO). e, Left: stress map within metaplastic breast tumour tissue, corresponding to b. The colour map shows the compressive (blue) and tensile (yellow) stresses. Right: average isotropic stress, n = 5 videos from N = 2 independent experiments. f, Left: stress map (15 kPa, PDMS), corresponding to c. Right: average isotropic stress, n = 14 videos from N = 4 independent experiments. g, Left: stress map on soft substrates (370 Pa). Right: average isotropic stress, n = 7 videos from N = 2 independent experiments. h, Area occupied by E-cad KO cells. Green, uncoated glass; magenta, collagen-coated glass; orange, 15 kPa, PDMS, fibronectin (FN) coated; red, 15 kPa, PDMS, collagen coated; blue, 370 Pa polyacrylamide coated with FN. E-cad KO cells are in minority and under tension on stiff and under compression on soft substrates. n = 8 videos from N = 3 independent experiments (glass); n = 7, N = 1 (glass, Coll.); n = 10, N = 3 (15 kPa, Coll.); n = 10, N = 3 (15 kPa, FN); and n = 10, N = 3 (370 Pa). i, Left: stress map (15 kPa, substrate) corresponding to d. Right: average isotropic stress, n = 13 videos from N = 2 independent experiments. All data points represent the mean value of all the isotropic stresses within one field of view of one frame. Normalization in c, d and h is to the initial area. P values are obtained from an unpaired t-test. All the magenta lines show the initial cell clusters. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. Scale bars, 200 µm (a, b and e); 100 µm (c, d, f, g, i).
