May the Force Be with You: Overlooked Mechanical Signaling

Within multicellular plants, cells constantly communicate with their neighbors and even distant cells. A cell may produce chemical signals, such as peptides and small molecules, and perceive chemical signals from other cells. Thus, signaling chemicals mediate the exchange of information between cells. There is a simpler and faster way for cells to communicate, i.e., a cell can mechanically nudge its neighbors to send a signal. However, mechanical force is often ignored by biologists, partially due to the difficulty in directly visualizing the force, in contrast to visual detection of signaling molecules.