Kefauver J M, Ward A B, Patapoutian A
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neuroscience, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Nature. 2020 Nov;587(7835):567-576. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2933-1. Epub 2020 Nov 25.
The ability to sense physical forces is conserved across all organisms. Cells convert mechanical stimuli into electrical or chemical signals via mechanically activated ion channels. In recent years, the identification of new families of mechanosensitive ion channels-such as PIEZO and OSCA/TMEM63 channels-along with surprising insights into well-studied mechanosensitive channels have driven further developments in the mechanotransduction field. Several well-characterized mechanosensory roles such as touch, blood-pressure sensing and hearing are now linked with primary mechanotransducers. Unanticipated roles of mechanical force sensing continue to be uncovered. Furthermore, high-resolution structures representative of nearly every family of mechanically activated channel described so far have underscored their diversity while advancing our understanding of the biophysical mechanisms of pressure sensing. Here we summarize recent discoveries in the physiology and structures of known mechanically activated ion channel families and discuss their implications for understanding the mechanisms of mechanical force sensing.
感知物理力的能力在所有生物体中都是保守的。细胞通过机械激活的离子通道将机械刺激转化为电信号或化学信号。近年来，新的机械敏感离子通道家族（如PIEZO和OSCA/TMEM63通道）的鉴定，以及对已深入研究的机械敏感通道的惊人见解，推动了机械转导领域的进一步发展。一些已明确的机械感觉功能，如触觉、血压感知和听觉，现在都与初级机械转导器相关联。机械力感知的意外作用仍在不断被发现。此外，迄今为止描述的几乎每个机械激活通道家族的高分辨率结构，在加深我们对压力传感生物物理机制理解的同时，也突出了它们的多样性。在这里，我们总结了已知机械激活离子通道家族在生理学和结构方面的最新发现，并讨论了它们对理解机械力传感机制的意义。
