a) Average isotropic stress around a +1/2 defect obtained from simulations for the control condition (left) and condition without intercellular forces (right) (n = 2,083 defects). b,c) Average yy (left)-, xy (middle)- and isotropic (right) components of stress around a + 1/2 defect obtained from experiments for (b) MDCK WT (n = 1,899 defects) and (c) E-cadherin KO (n = 1,428 defects) from 2 independent experiments. For a and b colour code represents the strength of the stress with positive for tensile state, negative for compression. d, e, f) velocity correlation length (d) (n=10), velocity (e) (n=10) and mean traction force (f) (n=12) of cells within a monolayer for both MDCK WT and MDCK E-cadherin KO cells. g, h) Cell spreading area (g) and aspect ratio (h) of cells within the monolayer obtained from n=10 different images for MDCK WT and E-cadherin KO cells as a function of time from 2 independent experiments. The error bars represent the standard deviation. Unpaired t-test was performed resulting in *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 and ****p<0.0001.