Turn-key Mapping of Cell Receptor Force Orientation and Magnitude Using a Commercial Structured Illumination Microscope

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Aug 4

PMID 34344862

Citations 5

Authors

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

Khalid Salaita

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

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