Mechanical plasticity in collective cell migration

Collective cell migration is crucial to maintain epithelium integrity during developmental and repair processes. It requires a tight regulation of mechanical coordination between neighboring cells. This coordination embraces different features including mechanical self-propulsion of individual cells within cellular colonies and large-scale force transmission through cell–cell junctions. This review discusses how the plasticity of biomechanical interactions at cell–cell contacts could help cellular systems to perform coordinated motions and adapt to the properties of the external environment.