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Publications

Journal Article Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Epublish 40 citations

PubMed: 36515266 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.82621

Piezo1 as a force-through-membrane sensor in red blood cells.

Elife 11

Authors: George Vaisey, Priyam Banerjee, Alison J North, Christoph A Haselwandter, Roderick MacKinnon

Affiliations

  • Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States.
  • Bio-Imaging Resource Center, The Rockefeller University, New York, United States.
  • Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States.

Abstract

Piezo1 is the stretch activated Ca channel in red blood cells that mediates homeostatic volume control. Here, we study the organization of Piezo1 in red blood cells using a combination of super-resolution microscopy techniques and electron microscopy. Piezo1 adopts a non-uniform distribution on the red blood cell surface, with a bias toward the biconcave 'dimple'. Trajectories of diffusing Piezo1 molecules, which exhibit confined Brownian diffusion on short timescales and hopping on long timescales, also reflect a bias toward the dimple. This bias can be explained by 'curvature coupling' between the intrinsic curvature of the Piezo dome and the curvature of the red blood cell membrane. Piezo1 does not form clusters with itself, nor does it colocalize with F-actin, Spectrin, or the Gardos channel. Thus, Piezo1 exhibits the properties of a force-through-membrane sensor of curvature and lateral tension in the red blood cell.

MeSH

Erythrocytes, Microscopy, Membranes, Blood Cells, Exhibitions As Topic

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