We introduce a generic, purely mechanical model for environment sensitive
motion of mammalian cells that is applicable to chemotaxis, haptotaxis, and
durotaxis as modes of motility. It is able to theoretically explain all
relevant experimental observations, in particular, the high efficiency of
motion, the behavior on inhomogeneous substrates, and the fixation of the
lagging pole during motion. Furthermore, our model predicts that efficiency of
motion in following a gradient depends on cell geometry (with more elongated
cells being more efficient).Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, 5 pages Supplemental Materia
