Turn-key mapping of cell receptor force orientation and magnitude using a commercial structured illumination microscope

Aaron Blanchard, J. Dale Combs, Joshua M. Brockman, Anna V. Kellner, Roxanne Glazier, Hanquan Su, Rachel L. Bender, Alisina S. Bazrafshan, Wenchun Chen, M. Edward Quach, Renhao Li, Alexa L. Mattheyses and Khalid Salaita ()
Additional contact information
Aaron Blanchard: Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
J. Dale Combs: Emory University
Joshua M. Brockman: Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
Anna V. Kellner: Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
Roxanne Glazier: Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University
Hanquan Su: Emory University
Rachel L. Bender: Emory University
Alisina S. Bazrafshan: Emory University
Wenchun Chen: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
M. Edward Quach: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Renhao Li: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Alexa L. Mattheyses: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Khalid Salaita: Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract Many cellular processes, including cell division, development, and cell migration require spatially and temporally coordinated forces transduced by cell-surface receptors. Nucleic acid-based molecular tension probes allow one to visualize the piconewton (pN) forces applied by these receptors. Building on this technology, we recently developed molecular force microscopy (MFM) which uses fluorescence polarization to map receptor force orientation with diffraction-limited resolution (~250 nm). Here, we show that structured illumination microscopy (SIM), a super-resolution technique, can be used to perform super-resolution MFM. Using SIM-MFM, we generate the highest resolution maps of both the magnitude and orientation of the pN traction forces applied by cells. We apply SIM-MFM to map platelet and fibroblast integrin forces, as well as T cell receptor forces. Using SIM-MFM, we show that platelet traction force alignment occurs on a longer timescale than adhesion. Importantly, SIM-MFM can be implemented on any standard SIM microscope without hardware modifications.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24602-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-24602-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24602-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().