The paper
C. Grashoff et al., “Measuring mechanical tension across vinculin reveals regulation of focal adhesion dynamics,” Nature, 466:263-66, 2010. Free F1000 Evaluation
The tool
Mechanical force affects a wide range of biological phenomena, from DNA replication to strengthening bones, yet there was “no calibrated method of tracing which proteins and which structures actually carry the force” in a cell, said Martin Schwartz of the University of Virginia. So Schwartz and colleagues designed a biosensor that measures force across a protein in a living cell with piconewton sensitivity.
The technique
The researchers attached fluorescent tags to each end of a spring-like peptide that would glow brightly when the spring collapsed under lack of tension (force). The sensing tool was then spliced in between the head and tail regions of vinculin, a protein present in focal adhesions that links the cytoskeleton to adhesion molecules, to measure the force cells use during ...
