Pulling the strings on solid-to-liquid phase transitions in cell collectives

Cell collectives must dynamically adapt to different biological contexts. For instance, in homeostatic conditions, epithelia must establish a barrier between body compartments and resist external stresses, while during development, wound healing or cancer invasion, these tissues undergo extensive remodeling. Using analogies from inert, passive materials, changes in cellular density, shape, rearrangements and/or migration were shown to result in collective transitions between solid and fluid states. However, what biological mechanisms govern these transitions remains an open question. In particular, the upstream signaling pathways and molecular effectors controlling the key physical axes determining tissue rheology and dynamics remain poorly understood. In this perspective, we focus on emerging evidence identifying the first biological signals determining the collective state of living tissues, with an emphasis on how these mechanisms are exploited for functionality across biological contexts.

First person – Chaoyu Fu

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Journal of Cell Science, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Chaoyu Fu is first author on ‘ Cooperative regulation of adherens junction expansion through epidermal growth factor receptor activation’, published in JCS. Chaoyu conducted the research described in this article while a PhD student in the labs of Virgile Viasnoff and Michael Sheetz at the Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore. He is now a postdoc in the lab of Yan Jie at the National University of Singapore, investigating mechanosensing and mechanical stability of membrane receptors.