Membrane Tension Integrates Physical and Signaling Cues to Gate Cell Fate Transitions
Cell membrane tension drops before differentiation and is required for AT1 and AT2 fate acquisition.Reduced tension enhances FGFR2 endocytosis and ERK signaling to drive AT2 specification.Reduced tension permits architectural remodeling and YAP/TAZ nuclear entry required for AT1 maturation.Intrinsic β-catenin and extrinsic confinement elevate CMT to restrict differentiation and together strongly induce a KRT8⁺ transitional state associated with fibrosis.
Authors
- Akihiro Miura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1217-7220)
- Douglas Brownfield (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4769-1518)
- D. Gibbard
- Gibran Ali (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0499-9937)
- Junming Cai
- Emily C. Maccoux
- Elisa Ghelfi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2592-6374)
- Ian A. Glass
- Munemasa Mori
- Yulong Han
- Aidan Balagtas
- Aaron Olson
- Isaiah Klein
Institutions
- Mayo Clinic (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-03-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.04.708749
- Primary Topic
- Hippo pathway signaling and YAP/TAZ
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00