Single-Cell Quantification of the Mechanical Stability of Cell–Cell Adherens Junction Using Glass Micropipettes

Cooperative motility, force generation and mechanosensing in a foraging non-photosynthetic diatom

“…We next employed a method that allows the measurement of forces exerted by single diatoms. Here, a force-calibrated glass micropipette is placed in the path of moving diatoms and the force is estimated through the degree of pipette deflection [ 43 , 44 ]. These data reveal forces between approximately 100 and approximately 800 pN ( figure 6 a,b ; electronic supplementary material, figure S5).…”

“…To measure the force produced by diatom movement ( figure 6 a,b ), a small block, approximately 0.25 × 0.5 cm, was excised from a starter culture and used to inoculate 1.5% agarose seawater medium contained by a u-shaped thin-wall chamber made of polydimethylsiloxane (DOW, 4019862) on top of a coverslip [ 43 ]. After incubation at room temperature for 1 day, the chamber was flooded with seawater (Electrostatic attraction between the pipette and medium necessitated that these experiments be conducted with a seawater overlay as in figure 3 b ).…”

Cooperative Motility, Force Generation and Mechanosensing in a Foraging Non-Photosynthetic Diatom

“…The stiffness of the micropipette was calibrated using a standard micro glass rod ( k s = 21.09 ± 4.22 pN/μm). The preparation of standard micro glass rod the calibration of the working micropipette were conducted as previously described 41 . Before use, the tip of the micropipette was incubated overnight with 3% fetal bovine serum (Sigma-Aldrich, A7030) and incubated overnight.…”

“…We next employed a method that allows the measurement of forces exerted by single diatoms. Here, a force-calibrated glass micropipette is placed in the path of moving diatoms and force is estimated through the degree of pipette deflection 41,42 . These data reveal forces between ~100 and ~800 pN (Fig.…”

“…To measure the force produced by diatom movement (Fig. 6A and B), a small block, approximately 0.25 x 0.5 cm, was excised from a starter culture and used to inoculate 1.5% agarose seawater medium contained by a u-shaped thin-wall chamber made of polydimethylsiloxane (DOW, 4019862) on top of a coverslip 41 . After incubation at room temperature for one day, the chamber was flooded with seawater (Electrostatic attraction between the pipette and medium necessitated that these experiments be conducted with a seawater overlay as in Fig.…”