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Actin flows in cell migration: from locomotion to trajectories
Eukaryotic cell movement is characterized by very diverse migration modes. Recent studies show that cells can adapt to environmental cues, such as adhesion and geometric confinement, thereby readily switching their mode of migration. Among this diversity of motile behaviors, actin flows have emerged as a highly conserved feature. Based on physical models of cytoskeleton dynamics, I will argue that the various observed migration modes are continuous variations of elementary locomotion mechanisms, which rely on a very robust physical property of the actin/myosin system : its ability to sustain flows at the cell scale. This central role of actin/myosin flows will be shown to affect the large scale properties of cell trajectories.