Abstract
During development, cells often switch between static and migratory behaviours. Such transitions are fundamental events in development and are linked to harmful consequences in pathology. It has long been considered that epithelial cells either migrate collectively as epithelial cells, or undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and migrate as individual mesenchymal cells. Here, we assess what is currently known about in vivo cell migratory phenomena and hypothesise that such migratory behaviours do not fit into alternative and mutually exclusive categories. Rather, we propose that these categories can be viewed as the most extreme cases of a general continuum of morphological variety, with cells harbouring different degrees or combinations of epithelial and mesenchymal features and displaying an array of migratory behaviours.
Footnotes
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing or financial interests.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the Generalitat de Catalunya. IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from MINECO (Government of Spain).
Article navigation
- Top
- Article
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Cell types and modes of migration
- Apico-basal polarity during the collective migration of epithelial cells
- The array of epithelial phenotypes with respect to EMT
- Adherens junctions, cell adhesion and apico-basal polarity
- The complex relationship between E-cadherin and migratory capacity
- Collective migration and EMT: fundamentally incompatible or mutually beneficial?
- Applying the spectrum to metastatic events
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Footnotes
- References
- Figures & tables
- Info & metrics
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