REVEALING THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF VINCULIN DEPENDENT MECHANOSENSING OF CELLS

Abstract

Force sensing is crucial for cells to regulate their adhesions to extracellular matrix (ECM) through integrin-based focal adhesions (FAs) or to neighboring cells through cadherin based cell-cell adherence junctions (AJs) in tissues. Vinculin is a crucial protein mediating mechanosensing at FA and AJ through binding to talin and alpha-catenin, two force-bearing cytoplasmic adapters that link FA and AJ to actin network, respectively. In my Ph.D studies, I apply magnetic tweezers based mechanical manipulation of single molecules to investigate the molecular mechanisms of the vinculin dependent mechanosensing from three aspects. 1) Force-dependent vinculin binding to talin. 2) The mechanical response of full-length vinculin. 3) Developing technology to enable control vinculin mediated mechanosensing in cells.