Mechanosensitivity

Mechanosensitivity

As this is one of the points around which Fleury’s rhetoric articulate I think it will be helpful to have a central post on the subject to link to.

Mechanosensitivity is just another cellular property. Genetically specified as every other one.

Proteic effectors of mechanosensitivity are encoded in the genome and their function is subject to alteration by mutation. One may consult as an example: Tuning the mechanosensitivity of a BK channel by changing the linker length, Hucheng Zhao, Masahiro Sokabe, Cell Research (2008 ): 1-8

The choice of this paper [fr], to showcase the genetic determinism of mechanosensitivity, was guided by the nature of the experiments it presents. Mutants were produced by changing the length of a domain of an ion channel and the data shown that the length of this domain was inversely related to mechanosensitivity. It is not a simple on/off mechanism but a modulatory one a straightforward one.

In general, one expects that cells’ mechanosensitivity dependent signaling, specified by the expression of particular effectors acting as sensors, will integrate with other microenvironmental cues to regulate cellular fonctions.
In the case of embryogenesis mechanosensitivity may participate to the integration of pressure as positional information.

Mechanosensors being genetically specified, natural variation is expected to be observed and be subject to natural selection if one or the other variants improve or deteriorate the overall fitness of the organism.