Quantifying traction forces for different migration modes of Dictyostelium discoideum cells

Cell migration is omnipresent in a diverse set of biological processes, including wound healing, embryogenesis or cancer metastasis. During this migration, cells can use different modes of motility. For example, cells can exhibit amoeboid-like motion during which the morphology changes continuously. Alternatively, cells can move like fish keratocytes and maintain their shape for prolonged periods of time. Here, we study wild-type Dictyostelium discoideum cells, displaying amoeboid-like motion, and a mutant which exhibits keratocyte-like motion. We use Traction Force Microscopy, confocal microscopy and imaging of relevant cytoskeleton proteins to characterize these diverse modes of migration. In particular, we determine the distribution of forces for both the amoeboid-like and the keratocyte-like cells and quantify the correlation between these forces and the cell’s shape, size and speed.