Variation in traction forces during cell cycle progression

Abstract

Tissue morphogenesis results from the interplay between cell growth and mechanical forces. While the impact of forces on cell proliferation has been fairly well characterized, the inverse relationship is much less understood. Here we investigated how traction forces vary during cell cycle progression. Cell shape was constrained on micropatterned substrates in order to distinguish variations in cell contractility from cell size increase. We performed traction force measurements of asynchronously dividing cells expressing a cell-cycle reporter, to obtain measurements of contractile forces generated during cell division. We found that forces tend to increase as cells progress through G1, before reaching a plateau in S phase, and then decline during G2. This biphasic behaviour revealed a previously undocumented specific and opposite regulation of cell contractility during each cell cycle stage.