Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing
Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation using a two-state double-well model for the gating mechanism....
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Physical Society
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80755 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0141-2168 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1273-9964 |
| _version_ | 1811090654588043264 |
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| author | Bouffanais, Roland Sun, Jianmin Yue, Dick K. P. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Bouffanais, Roland Sun, Jianmin Yue, Dick K. P. |
| author_sort | Bouffanais, Roland |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation using a two-state double-well model for the gating mechanism. We then focus on the physical limits of directional mechanosensing by a single cell having multiple mechanosensors and subjected to a shear flow inducing a nonuniform membrane tension. Our results demonstrate that the accuracy in sensing the mechanostimulus direction not only increases with cell size and exposure to a signal, but also grows for cells with a near-critical membrane prestress. Finally, the existence of a nonlinear threshold effect, fundamentally limiting the cell's ability to effectively perform directional mechanosensing at a low signal-to-noise ratio, is uncovered. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:49:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/80755 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:49:45Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/807552022-09-29T10:48:43Z Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing Bouffanais, Roland Sun, Jianmin Yue, Dick K. P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. School of Engineering Bouffanais, Roland Yue, Dick K. P. Many eukaryotic cells are able to perform directional mechanosensing by directly measuring minute spatial differences in the mechanical stress on their membranes. Here, we explore the limits of a single mechanosensitive channel activation using a two-state double-well model for the gating mechanism. We then focus on the physical limits of directional mechanosensing by a single cell having multiple mechanosensors and subjected to a shear flow inducing a nonuniform membrane tension. Our results demonstrate that the accuracy in sensing the mechanostimulus direction not only increases with cell size and exposure to a signal, but also grows for cells with a near-critical membrane prestress. Finally, the existence of a nonlinear threshold effect, fundamentally limiting the cell's ability to effectively perform directional mechanosensing at a low signal-to-noise ratio, is uncovered. 2013-09-16T16:55:53Z 2013-09-16T16:55:53Z 2013-05 2013-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1539-3755 1550-2376 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80755 Bouffanais, Roland, Jianmin Sun, and Dick K. P. Yue. “Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing.” Physical Review E 87, no. 5 (May 2013). © 2013 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0141-2168 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1273-9964 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.87.052716 Physical Review E Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Physical Society APS |
| spellingShingle | Bouffanais, Roland Sun, Jianmin Yue, Dick K. P. Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title | Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title_full | Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title_fullStr | Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title_short | Physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| title_sort | physical limits on cellular directional mechanosensing |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80755 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0141-2168 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1273-9964 |
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