Mechanosensitive Adhesion Explains Stepping Motility in Amoeboid Cells.

Cells employing amoeboid motility exhibit repetitive cycles of rapid expansion and contraction and apply coordinated traction forces to their environment. Although aspects of this process are well studied, it is unclear how the cell controls the coordination of cell length changes with adhesion to the surface. Here, we develop a simple model to mechanistically explain the emergence of periodic changes in length and spatiotemporal dynamics of traction forces measured in chemotaxing unicellular amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum.