  Tissues are subjected to large external forces and undergo global
deformations during morphogenesis. We use synthetic analogues of tissues to
study the impact of cell-cell adhesion on the response of cohesive cellular
assemblies under such stresses. In particular, we use biomimetic emulsions in
which the droplets are functionalized in order to exhibit specific
droplet-droplet adhesion. We flow these emulsions in microfluidic constrictions
and study their response to this forced deformation via confocal microscopy. We
find that the distributions of avalanche sizes are conserved between repulsive
and adhesive droplets. However, adhesion locally impairs the rupture of
droplet-droplet contacts, which in turn pulls on the rearranging droplets. As a
result, adhesive droplets are a lot more deformed along the axis of elongation
in the constriction. This finding could shed light on the origin of
polarization processes during morphogenesis.
