Figure 5: Engineering the structural ensemble by programming the mechanical potential and activity.

A. Experimental workflow: The MEP-ECM or MEP-MEP interfacial tensions were perturbed using shRNA against TLN1 (green) and CTNND1 (red). A non-targeting shRNA was used as control (blue). Equal proportion of mCh+ normal and GFP+ shRNA-transduced MEP were aggregated into spheroids (KD-MEP spheroids) and cultured either in Matrigel or agarose.

B. The macrostate energy calculations for KD-MEP spheroids in Matrigel (top) and agarose (bottom) using the BCC lattice model.

C. The predicted ensemble distributions for KD-MEP spheroids cultured in Matrigel (top) and agarose (bottom).

D. The measured probability densities for KD-MEP spheroids cultured in Matrigel (top) and agarose (bottom). Histograms show the distribution of experimental data, dashed vertical lines are the average ${\mathrm{\varphi }}_{\mathrm{b}}$, and the solid curves are the theoretical predictions for each condition. The number of observations is noted at the top of the graphs.