{"doi":"10.1101/2020.09.01.277962","title":"Genomic signatures of the unjamming transition in compressed human bronchial epithelial cells","abstract":"Abstract Epithelial tissue has the capacity to switch from a collective phase that is quiescent, solidlike and non-migratory to one that is dynamic, fluid-like and migratory. In certain physiological and pathophysiological contexts this phenotypic switch has been attributed not to the well-known epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, EMT, but rather to the recently discovered unjamming transition, UJT. UJT has been characterized thus far mainly at functional and morphological levels whereas underlying genome-wide molecular events remain largely unexplored. Using primary human bronchial epithelial cells and one well-defined trigger of UJT –mechanical compression– here we combine temporal RNA-Seq data and Protein-Protein Interaction networks to provide the first genome-wide analysis of UJT. Our results show that compression induces a multiphasic transcriptional response characterized by an early activation of genes regulating the membrane and actomyosin structure, and a delayed activation of genes regulating the extracellular matrix and cellmatrix interactions. This biphasic response is mediated by a cascade of signaling processes that promotes actin polymerization through the recruitment of integrin-ECM adhesive complexes and promotes increased cellular motility through activation of AP-1 transcription factors via ERK and JNK pathways. These findings, taken together, show that the UJT program is not the result of any single signaling pathway but rather comprises a coordinated interplay of downstream pathways including development, fate selection, energy metabolism, cytoskeletal reorganization, and adhesive interaction with extracellular matrix.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":121295,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":7,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9479,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":320637,"name":"Ayşe Kılıç","orcid":"0000-0003-3217-4075","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":506800,"name":"Enrico Maiorino","orcid":"0000-0002-0159-4221","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247345,"name":"Jennifer A. Mitchel","orcid":"0000-0002-4480-3193","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":321996,"name":"Maureen McGill","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":461862,"name":"Robert Chase","orcid":"0000-0003-1183-0619","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247351,"name":"Jeffrey J. Fredberg","orcid":"0000-0002-7968-0920","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247354,"name":"Jin‐Ah Park","orcid":"0000-0002-8930-9287","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":36157,"name":"Kimberly Glass","orcid":"0000-0003-4394-5779","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":25033,"name":"Scott T. Weiss","orcid":"0000-0001-7196-303X","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":320640,"name":"Margherita De Marzio","orcid":"0000-0003-1821-208X","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":155,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:42.734024Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}