The mesenchymal-amoeboid transition (MAT) was proposed as a mechanism for cancer cells to adapt their migration mode to their environment. While the molecular pathways involved in this transition are well documented, the role of the microenvironment in the MAT is still poorly understood. Here, we investigated how confinement and adhesion affect this transition. We report that, in the absence of focal adhesions and under conditions of confinement, mesenchymal cells can spontaneously switch to a fast amoeboid migration phenotype. We identified two main types of fast migration--one involving a local protrusion and a second involving a myosin-II-dependent mechanical instability of the cell cortex that leads to a global cortical flow. Interestingly, transformed cells are more prone to adopt this fast migration mode. Finally, we propose a generic model that explains migration transitions and predicts a phase diagram of migration phenotypes based on three main control parameters: confinement, adhesion, and contractility.

Cell movement has essential functions in development, immunity, and cancer. Various cell migration patterns have been reported, but no general rule has emerged so far. Here, we show on the basis of experimental data in vitro and in vivo that cell persistence, which quantifies the straightness of trajectories, is robustly coupled to cell migration speed. We suggest that this universal coupling constitutes a generic law of cell migration, which originates in the advection of polarity cues by an actin cytoskeleton undergoing flows at the cellular scale. Our analysis relies on a theoretical model that we validate by measuring the persistence of cells upon modulation of actin flow speeds and upon optogenetic manipulation of the binding of an actin regulator to actin filaments. Beyond the quantitative prediction of the coupling, the model yields a generic phase diagram of cellular trajectories, which recapitulates the full range of observed migration patterns.

In this letter, we describe a method to control the organization and thickness of multilayered phospholipid films. The meniscus of an organic solution of phospholipid molecules was dragged at a speed v on a solid substrate under controlled temperature and forced convection, leading to the deposition of a dried multilayered phospholipid film with a thickness h in the range of 20-200 nm. We found two distinct regimes dominating the film deposition. At low speeds, phospholipid molecules accumulate near the contact line and form a dry film behind the meniscus (evaporation regime). At high speed, viscous forces become predominant and pull out a liquid film that will dry afterward (Landau-Levich regime). Both regimes show robust scaling h infinity v(alpha) with alpha = -1.1 and 0.76, respectively. Although these regimes have been observed separately in the past, they have not been demonstrated in the same material system. Moreover, we present models whose scalings (alpha = -1 and 2/3) are in close agreement with the observed values. The microscale organization of the resulting film is independent of v for a given regime but differs from one regime to another. In the Landau-Levich regime, h is very homogeneous on the microscale with discrete variations of +/- 5 nm, that is, the thickness of one bilayer.