Dulbecco modified eagle medium (dmem)

All mammalian cells were cultured in DMEM (ATCC, #30-2002) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (ATCC, #30-2020) at 37 °C and 5% CO₂, and all imaging of mammalian cells was conducted under serum free conditions (DMEM alone). Hs27 fibroblasts (ATCC, #CRL 1634) were imaged on planar sections of quartz contact guidance chips as previously described^{28 (link)}. MDA-MB-231 cells (ATCC #HTB-26) were imaged on glass bottomed well plates coated with 25 µg/mL Fibronectin (Gibco #33016015) or functionalized gold coated coverslips as previously described^{29 (link)}. A549 cells (ATCC #CCL-185) were imaged on planar sections of quartz nanostructured chips as previously described³⁰ . The Dictyostelium cells were wild type AX2 strain and generously gifted from the Devreotes laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, were cultured axenically in HL5 at 22 °C, and imaged on glass bottom well plates as previously described^{31 (link)}. Microscopy details for each cell type including microscopy mode, magnification, numerical aperture, camera and wait time between images are listed in Supplementary Note 2.

Human embryonic kidney cells GripTite 293 MSR (293GT, Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA, USA) and Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK, ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA) cells were grown in either Dulbeco’s minimum essential medium (DMEM, HyClone, GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Logan, Utah, USA) or minimum essential medium (MEM, HyClone) supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum (FBS, HyClone) and 1X L-Glutamine (L-Glu, Gibco, Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA), respectively. Human lung epithelial cells (A549, ATCC) were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 5% FBS and L-Glu. Mouse lung cells (KLN 205, ATCC) were cultured in MEM supplemented with 10% FBS and L-Glu. Chicken fibroblast cells (DF-1, ATCC) were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS and L-Glu. All cells were grown in a humidified incubator with 5% CO_2, at either 37 °C (293GT, MDCK, A549, and KLN 205 cells) or 39 °C (DF-1 cells).

HEK 293T cells (ATCC) were cultured in DMEM with 10% FBS. DMEM was purchased from ATCC.

GBM cell lines were purchased from American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, USA) and grown in a humidified, 5 % CO2 incubator at 37 °C in the complete media as described by the provider. DBTRG-05MG (ATCC, USA, #CRL-2020) cells were grown in ATCC-formulated RMPI-1640 medium (Gibco, Life Technologies, USA, #A10491-01) supplemented with 10 % foetal bovine calf serum (Gibco, Life Technologies, USA, #16000044), non-essential amino acids (Gibco, Life Technologies, USA, #11140050) and 100 U/mL penicillin, 0.1 mg/mL streptomycin (Gibco, Life Technologies, USA, #15140122) to generate complete media. M059J (ATCC, USA, #CRL-2366) cells were grown in media containing a 1:1 mixture of Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium and Ham’s F12 Medium (DMEM-F12, ATCC, USA, #30-2006) supplemented with 10 % foetal bovine calf serum, non-essential amino acids and 100 U/mL penicillin, 0.1 mg/mL streptomycin. LN18 (ATCC, USA, #CRL-2610) and LN229 (ATCC, USA, #CRL-2611) were grown in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM, ATCC, USA, #30-2002) supplemented with 5 % foetal bovine calf serum and 100 U/mL penicillin, 0.1 mg/mL streptomycin. HeLa cells were grown in a humidified, 5 % CO2 incubator at 37 °C in the complete media, Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (DMEM, ATCC, USA, #30-2002) supplemented with 10 % foetal bovine calf serum and 100 U/mL penicillin, 0.1 mg/mL streptomycin.

HT1080 cells (male, fibrosarcoma epithelial cells purchased from ATCC, Manassas, VA, United States) were grown at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ in EMEM (ATCC) and RPMI (ATCC), 10% (v/v) FBS (Gibco, Amarillo, TX, USA), and 1% penicillin–streptomycin antibiotic (Gibco). HCT116 cells (male, colorectal epithelial cancer cells purchased from ATCC) were grown in McCoy’s 5A (ATCC) 10% (v/v) FBS (Gibco), and 1% penicillin–streptomycin antibiotic (Gibco). Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) along with their REV1 knockout counterparts were grown at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ in DMEM (ATCC), 10% (v/v) FBS (Gibco), and 1% penicillin–streptomycin antibiotic (Gibco). REM (canine mammary cancer cells), ZR751 (human breast cancer cell line), and their radioresistant counterparts REM RR and ZR751 RR 10 were graciously donated by Mark Gray, University of Edinburgh. These cells were grown at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ in DMEM (ATCC), 10% (v/v) FBS (Gibco), and 1% penicillin–streptomycin antibiotic (Gibco). 0.25% trypsin was used for trypsinizing and splitting.