Seungbok Yang, Mahdi Golkaram, Seyoun Oh, Yujeong Oh, Yoonjae Cho, Jeehyun Yoe, Sungeun Ju, Matthew A Lalli, Seung-Yeol Park, Yoontae Lee, Jiwon Jang
Dynamic changes in mechanical microenvironments, such as cell crowding, regulate lineage fates as well as cell proliferation. Although regulatory mechanisms for contact inhibition of proliferation have been extensively studied, it remains unclear how cell crowding induces lineage specification. Here we found that a well-known oncogene, ETS variant transcription factor 4 (ETV4), serves as a molecular transducer that links mechanical microenvironments and gene expression. In a growing epithelium of human embryonic stem cells, cell crowding dynamics is translated into ETV4 expression, serving as a pre-pattern for future lineage fates...
May 3, 2024: Nature Cell Biology