Mechanotransduction plays a crucial role in physiology. Biological processes including sensing touch and sound waves require yet unidentified cation channels that detect pressure. Mouse piezo1 (mpiezo1) and mpiezo2 induce mechanically activated cationic currents in cells; however, it is unknown if piezos are pore-forming ion channels or modulate ion channels. We show that Drosophila piezo (dpiezo) also induces mechanically activated currents in cells, but through channels with remarkably distinct pore properties including sensitivity to the pore blocker ruthenium red and single channel conductances. mpiezo1 assembles as a ~1.2 million-Dalton homo-oligomer, with no evidence of other proteins in this complex. Finally, purified mpiezo1 reconstituted into asymmetric lipid bilayers and liposomes forms ruthenium red-sensitive ion channels. These data demonstrate that piezos are an evolutionarily conserved ion channel family involved in mechanotransduction.
In 2010, two proteins, Piezo1 and Piezo2, were identified as the long-sought molecular carriers of an excitatory mechanically activated current found in many cells. This discovery has opened the floodgates for studying a vast number of mechanotransduction processes. Over the past six years, groundbreaking research has identified Piezos as ion channels that sense light touch, proprioception, and vascular blood flow, ruled out roles for Piezos in several other mechanotransduction processes, and revealed the basic structural and functional properties of the channel. Here, we review these findings and discuss the many aspects of Piezo function that remain mysterious, including how Piezos convert a variety of mechanical stimuli into channel activation and subsequent inactivation, and what molecules and mechanisms modulate Piezo function.
Diarthrodial joints are essential for load bearing and locomotion. Physiologically, articular cartilage sustains millions of cycles of mechanical loading. Chondrocytes, the cells in cartilage, regulate their metabolic activities in response to mechanical loading. Pathological mechanical stress can lead to maladaptive cellular responses and subsequent cartilage degeneration. We sought to deconstruct chondrocyte mechanotransduction by identifying mechanosensitive ion channels functioning at injurious levels of strain. We detected robust expression of the recently identified mechanosensitive channels, PIEZO1 and PIEZO2. Combined directed expression of Piezo1 and -2 sustained potentiated mechanically induced Ca 2+ signals and electrical currents compared with single-Piezo expression. In primary articular chondrocytes, mechanically evoked Ca 2+ transients produced by atomic force microscopy were inhibited by GsMTx4, a PIEZO-blocking peptide, and by Piezo1-or Piezo2-specific siRNA. We complemented the cellular approach with an explant-cartilage injury model. GsMTx4 reduced chondrocyte death after mechanical injury, suggesting a possible therapy for reducing cartilage injury and posttraumatic osteoarthritis by attenuating Piezo-mediated cartilage mechanotransduction of injurious strains.A rticular cartilage is a hydrated connective tissue that supports loads and minimizes friction in the diarthrodial joints. It has a highly differentiated extracellular matrix (ECM) composed primarily of type II collagen, the large aggregating proteoglycan, aggrecan, and water. Chondrocytes are the only cells in cartilage and are responsible for maintaining and remodeling cartilage through a homeostatic balance of anabolic and catabolic activities. Under normal physiologic conditions, chondrocytes are exposed to millions of cycles of mechanical loading per year (1). These mechanical signals play an important role in regulating chondrocyte anabolic and biosynthetic activity, as evidenced by cartilage atrophy following periods of disuse or immobilization (2-7). However, under abnormal loading conditions (e.g., due to obesity, trauma, or joint instability), mechanical factors play a critical role in the onset and progression of osteoarthritis (1). Such "injurious" loading has been modeled in vitro using explant culture systems that replicate many of the early cellular and molecular events characteristic of osteoarthritis (8). Osteoarthritis is a painful and debilitating disease of weight-bearing joints that affects over 26 million people in the United States (9) with posttraumatic arthritis being responsible for ∼12% of the incidence of osteoarthritis (10).Despite the critical importance of mechanical loading in health and disease of synovial joints, the mechanisms of mechanotransduction of chondrocytes are not fully understood and are likely to differ under physiologic and pathologic conditions (11)(12)(13)(14). Although many different mechanisms have been shown to be involved in chondrocyte mechanotransduction (13,(15)(16)(17), recent st...
Piezo1 ion channels mediate the conversion of mechanical forces into electrical signals and are critical for responsiveness to touch in metazoans. The apparent mechanical sensitivity of Piezo1 varies substantially across cellular environments, stimulating methods and protocols, raising the fundamental questions of what precise physical stimulus activates the channel and how its stimulus sensitivity is regulated. Here, we measured Piezo1 currents evoked by membrane stretch in three patch configurations, while simultaneously visualizing and measuring membrane geometry. Building on this approach, we developed protocols to minimize resting membrane curvature and tension prior to probing Piezo1 activity. We find that Piezo1 responds to lateral membrane tension with exquisite sensitivity as compared to other mechanically activated channels and that resting tension can drive channel inactivation, thereby tuning overall mechanical sensitivity of Piezo1. Our results explain how Piezo1 can function efficiently and with adaptable sensitivity as a sensor of mechanical stimulation in diverse cellular contexts.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12088.001
Summary TRPV1 is the founding and best-studied member of the family of temperature-activated transient receptor potential ion channels (thermoTRPs). Voltage, chemicals, and heat amongst other agonists allosterically gate TRPV1. Molecular determinants for TRPV1 activation by capsaicin, allicin, acid, ammonia, and voltage have been identified. However, the structures and mechanisms mediating its pronounced temperature-sensitivity remain unclear. Recent studies of the related channel TRPV3 identified residues within the pore region required for heat activation. Here we use both random and targeted mutagenesis screens of TRPV1 and identify point mutations in the outer pore region that specifically impair temperature-activation. Single channel analysis shows that TRPV1 mutations disrupt heat-sensitivity by ablating long channel openings, that are part of the temperature-gating pathway. We propose that sequential occupancy of short and long open states upon activation provides a mechanism to enhance temperature-sensitivity. Our study suggests that the outer pore plays a general role in heat-sensitivity of thermoTRPs.
Ion-channels can be activated (gated) by a variety of stimuli including chemicals, voltage, mechanical force or temperature. Whereas molecular mechanisms of ion-channel gating by chemicals and voltage are in principal understood, the logic of temperature-activation has remained elusive. The transient receptor potential channel TRPV3 is a non-selective cation channel activated by warm temperatures and sensory chemicals such as camphor. Here, we screened ∼14,000 random mutant clones and identified five single point-mutations that specifically abolish heat-activation, but do not perturb chemical-activation or voltage-modulation. Notably, all five mutations are located in the putative 6 th transmembrane helix and the adjacent extracellular loop within the pore region of mouse TRPV3. Although distinct in sequence, we find that the corresponding loop of frog TRPV3 is also specifically required for heat-activation. The exchange of this domain from the heat-insensitive human TRPV2 into mouse TRPV3 specifically abolishes heat responses, emphasizing the requirement of this region for temperature activation. These findings demonstrate that temperature-sensitivity of TRPV3 is separable from all other known activation-mechanisms, and reveal a novel region implicated in sensing temperature.
Summary A gold standard for characterizing mechanically-activated (MA) currents is via heterologous expression of candidate channels in naïve cells. Two recent studies described MA channels using this paradigm. TMEM150c was proposed to be a component of a MA channel partly based on a heterologous expression approach. In another study, Piezo1’s N-terminal “propeller” domain was proposed to constitute an intrinsic mechanosensitive module based on expression of a chimera between a pore-forming domain of the mechano-insensitive ASIC1 channel and Piezo1. When we attempted to replicate these results we found each construct conferred modest MA currents in a small fraction of naïve HEK cells similar to the published work. Strikingly, these MA currents were not detected in cells in which endogenous Piezo1 was CRISPR/Cas9-inactivated. These results highlight the importance of choosing cells lacking endogenous MA channels to assay the mechanotransduction properties of various proteins.
Summary Several cell types experience repetitive mechanical stimuli, including vein endothelial cells during pulsating blood flow, inner ear hair cells upon sound exposure, and skin cells and their innervating DRG neurons when sweeping across a textured surface or touching a vibrating object. While mechanosensitive Piezo ion channels have been clearly implicated in sensing static touch, their roles in transducing repetitive stimulations are less clear. Here, we perform electrophysiological recordings of heterologously expressed mouse Piezo1 and Piezo2 responding to repetitive mechanical stimulations. We find that both channels function as pronounced frequency filters whose transduction efficiencies vary with stimulus frequency, waveform, and duration. We then use numerical simulations and human disease-related point mutations to demonstrate that channel inactivation is the molecular mechanism underlying frequency filtering, and further show that frequency filtering is conserved in rapidly-adapting mouse DRG neurons. Our results give insight into the potential contributions of Piezos in transducing repetitive mechanical stimuli.
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