RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The mechanical stability of Tension Gauge Tethers
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.03.11.483943
DO 10.1101/2022.03.11.483943
A1 Jingzhun Liu
A1 Shimin Le
A1 Mingxi Yao
A1 Wenmao Huang
A1 Zhikai Tio
A1 Yu Zhou
A1 Jie Yan
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/08/08/2022.03.11.483943.abstract
AB Mechanotransduction of cells relies on responding to tension transmitted along various supramolecular linkages. Tension gauge tethers (TGTs), short double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) fragments that undergo irreversible tension-dependent dissociation under shear-stretching mode, have been widely applied in live cell experiments to provide critical insights into the mechanotransduction activities of cells. However, the current physical understanding of the mechanical responses of TGTs remains limited, which restricts the range of information that can be extracted from experimental observations. In order to provide quantitative in-depth understanding and interpretation of experimental observations, in this work, we quantified the tension-dependent lifetime of TGTs from which the mechanical stability of TGTs under various physiologically relevant stretching conditions can be derived. Applications of the determined mechanical stability of TGTs to cell studies strongly suggest revisiting the previous interpretations of several reported experimental observations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.