Li, H., Zhang, C., Hu, Y., Liu, P., Sun, F., Chen, W.,…Liu, Z. (2021).A reversible shearing DNA probe for visualizing mechanically strong receptors in living cells. Nature Cell Biology.(刘郑)

Abstract

In the last decade, DNA-based tension sensors have made significant contributions to the study of the importance of mechanical forces in many biological systems. Albeit successful, one shortcoming of these techniques is their inability to reversibly

measure receptor forces in a higher regime (that is, >20 pN), which limits our understanding of the molecular details of mechanochemical transduction in living cells. Here, we developed a reversible shearing DNA-based tension probe (RSDTP) for probing molecular piconewton-scale forces between 4 and 60 pN transmitted by cells. Using these probes, we can easily distinguish

the differences in force-bearing integrins without perturbing adhesion biology and reveal that a strong force-bearing integrin

cluster can serve as a ‘mechanical pivot’ to maintain focal adhesion architecture and facilitate its maturation. The benefits of

the RSDTP include a high dynamic range, reversibility and single-molecule sensitivity, all of which will facilitate a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of mechanobiology.

全文链接请见：

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-021-00691-0