Figure 5. Supracellular cell pairs are more efficient at dispersing pressure from surrounding tissues.

(A) Micrographs of stage 23 embryos showing the endodermal pocket formed during trunk ventral cell (TVC) migration. Embryos are oriented with anterior to the right. Endodermal cells are marked with Nkx2-1>hCD4::GFP (green), TVCs are marked with Mesp>3xmKate2 (magenta). Yellow arrows point to depression pocket left in the endoderm by migrating TVCs. (B) Proposed model for higher efficiency of supracellular cell pairs in overcoming resistance from the endodermal tissue (pink) during migration: the adhesive cell pair shares the resistance force (yellow arrows), which otherwise each single cell must overcome alone. Pressure from the posterior trailer (purple arrows) can help the cell pair overcome resistance from the endoderm. Size of the arrows below the graphics represents relative strength of the force experienced by the cell in the direction of the arrow. (C) Simulated supracellular cell pair underneath the endoderm. Epidermis is shown in green. The endoderm is rendered transparent. (D) Speed comparison between single cell and differently arranged cell pairs with different profiles and force distributions under the endoderm of varying stiffness. Five simulations are run for each condition; the error bar is the standard error. Statistical analysis is performed using Brown–Forsythe and Welch ANOVA test. *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ****p<0.0001.