Swimming and crawling are the two most prominent mechanisms of cell migration. We have devel- oped theoretical models of these two mechanisms of cell migration to understand their similarities and differences. Towards this, we have followed two modeling approaches – bead and spring based models which represent a very simple setup to capture the basic features of motility, and, detailed models by taking cellular ingredients into account.
In this talk, I will describe the mechanisms of the symmetry breaking for the swimmer and crawler for their persistent motion. I will also show the necessary conditions for mechanosensitive adhesion based crawling (similar to “scallop theorem” for microswimmers), and the relationship between cell velocity and the magnitude of cellular forces (v∼f 2 for swimming and v∼f 3 for crawling). I will also demonstrate non-Newtonian rheology of swimmer suspensions and non-monotonic dependence of crawling speed on the adhesion strength.