Communications Biology (Jan 2021)

Crowding-induced opening of the mechanosensitive Piezo1 channel in silico

  • Wenjuan Jiang,
  • John Smith Del Rosario,
  • Wesley Botello-Smith,
  • Siyuan Zhao,
  • Yi-chun Lin,
  • Han Zhang,
  • Jérôme Lacroix,
  • Tibor Rohacs,
  • Yun Lyna Luo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01600-1
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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Mechanosensitive Piezo1 channels transduce mechanical stimuli into electrochemical signals. Jiang et al. show that due to the bending rigidity of the membrane, the overlap of neighboring Piezo1 footprints produces a flattening of the Piezo1 footprints and a cation-selective conducting pore. This study suggests that the clustering of Piezo1 channels may tune its sensitivity to applied force.