Cargando…
Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity
Piezo1 is an ion channel that gates open when mechanical force is applied to a cell membrane, thus allowing cells to detect and respond to mechanical stimulation. Molecular structures of Piezo1 reveal a large ion channel with an unusually curved shape. This study analyzes how such a curved ion chann...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2018
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6317911/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30480546 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41968 |
_version_ | 1783384796208037888 |
---|---|
author | Haselwandter, Christoph A MacKinnon, Roderick |
author_facet | Haselwandter, Christoph A MacKinnon, Roderick |
author_sort | Haselwandter, Christoph A |
collection | PubMed |
description | Piezo1 is an ion channel that gates open when mechanical force is applied to a cell membrane, thus allowing cells to detect and respond to mechanical stimulation. Molecular structures of Piezo1 reveal a large ion channel with an unusually curved shape. This study analyzes how such a curved ion channel interacts energetically with the cell membrane. Through membrane mechanical calculations, we show that Piezo1 deforms the membrane shape outside the perimeter of the channel into a curved ‘membrane footprint’. This membrane footprint amplifies the sensitivity of Piezo1 to changes in membrane tension, rendering it exquisitely responsive. We assert that the shape of the Piezo channel is an elegant example of molecular form evolved to optimize a specific function, in this case tension sensitivity. Furthermore, the predicted influence of the membrane footprint on Piezo gating is consistent with the demonstrated importance of membrane-cytoskeletal attachments to Piezo gating. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6317911 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63179112019-01-09 Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity Haselwandter, Christoph A MacKinnon, Roderick eLife Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Piezo1 is an ion channel that gates open when mechanical force is applied to a cell membrane, thus allowing cells to detect and respond to mechanical stimulation. Molecular structures of Piezo1 reveal a large ion channel with an unusually curved shape. This study analyzes how such a curved ion channel interacts energetically with the cell membrane. Through membrane mechanical calculations, we show that Piezo1 deforms the membrane shape outside the perimeter of the channel into a curved ‘membrane footprint’. This membrane footprint amplifies the sensitivity of Piezo1 to changes in membrane tension, rendering it exquisitely responsive. We assert that the shape of the Piezo channel is an elegant example of molecular form evolved to optimize a specific function, in this case tension sensitivity. Furthermore, the predicted influence of the membrane footprint on Piezo gating is consistent with the demonstrated importance of membrane-cytoskeletal attachments to Piezo gating. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2018-11-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6317911/ /pubmed/30480546 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41968 Text en © 2018, Haselwandter and MacKinnon https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics Haselwandter, Christoph A MacKinnon, Roderick Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title | Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title_full | Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title_fullStr | Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title_full_unstemmed | Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title_short | Piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
title_sort | piezo’s membrane footprint and its contribution to mechanosensitivity |
topic | Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6317911/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30480546 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.41968 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT haselwandterchristopha piezosmembranefootprintanditscontributiontomechanosensitivity AT mackinnonroderick piezosmembranefootprintanditscontributiontomechanosensitivity |