Quantitative prediction and measurement of Piezo's membrane footprint
Piezo proteins are mechanosensitive ion channels that can locally curve the membrane into a dome shape [Y. R. Guo, R. MacKinnon, eLife 6, e33660 (2017)]. The curved shape of the Piezo dome is expected to deform the surrounding lipid bilayer membrane into a membrane footprint, which may serve to ampl...
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Published in | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 119; no. 40; pp. 1 - e2208027119 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington
National Academy of Sciences
04.10.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Piezo proteins are mechanosensitive ion channels that can locally curve the membrane into a dome shape [Y. R. Guo, R. MacKinnon,
eLife
6, e33660 (2017)]. The curved shape of the Piezo dome is expected to deform the surrounding lipid bilayer membrane into a membrane footprint, which may serve to amplify Piezo’s sensitivity to applied forces [C. A. Haselwandter, R. MacKinnon,
eLife
7, e41968 (2018)]. If Piezo proteins are embedded in lipid bilayer vesicles, the membrane shape deformations induced by the Piezo dome depend on the vesicle size. We employ here membrane elasticity theory to predict, with no free parameters, the shape of such Piezo vesicles outside the Piezo dome, and show that the predicted vesicle shapes agree quantitatively with the corresponding measured vesicle shapes obtained through cryoelectron tomography, for a range of vesicle sizes [W. Helfrich,
Z. Naturforsch. C
28, 693–703 (1973)]. On this basis, we explore the coupling between Piezo and membrane shape and demonstrate that the features of the Piezo dome affecting Piezo’s membrane footprint approximately follow a spherical cap geometry. Our work puts into place the foundation for deducing key elastic properties of the Piezo dome from membrane shape measurements and provides a general framework for quantifying how proteins deform bilayer membranes. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Author contributions: C.A.H. and R.M. developed the theory to analyze Piezo vesicles; Y.R.G. and Z.F. produced Piezo vesicles, collected tomograms, and digitized the vesicle profiles; and C.A.H. and R.M. applied the theory and wrote the paper. Edited by Fred Sigworth, Yale University, New Haven, CT; received May 10, 2022; accepted August 1, 2022 1C.A.H. and R.M. contributed equally to this work. |
ISSN: | 0027-8424 1091-6490 |
DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.2208027119 |