Coordinating cell polarization and morphogenesis through mechanical feedback

Samhita P. Banavar, Michael Trogdon, Brian Drawert, Tau-Mu Yi, Linda R. Petzold, Otger Campàs

Abstract: Author summary Cell migration, morphogenesis and secretion are among the vast number of cellular processes that require cells to define a preferred spatial direction to perform essential tasks. This is achieved by setting an intracellular molecular gradient that polarizes the cell. While the molecular players involved in cell polarization and some of the mechanisms that cells use to establish such molecular gradients are known, it remains unclear how cells maintain polarization as they dramatically change shape during morphogenesis, migration, etc. Here we identify a potential feedback control mechanism, encoded genetically in cells, that provides the molecular polarization machinery with the necessary information about cell geometry to maintain cell polarization during cell shape changes.