HydroFlipper membrane tension probes: imaging membrane hydration and mechanical compression simultaneously in living cells.

ABSTRACT: HydroFlippers are introduced as the first fluorescent membrane tension probes that report simultaneously on membrane compression and hydration. The probe design is centered around a sensing cycle that couples the mechanical planarization of twisted push-pull fluorophores with the dynamic covalent hydration of their exocyclic acceptor. In FLIM images of living cells, tension-induced deplanarization is reported as a decrease in fluorescence lifetime of the dehydrated mechanophore. Membrane hydration is reported as the ratio of the photon counts associated to the hydrated and dehydrated mechanophores in reconvoluted lifetime frequency histograms. Trends for tension-induced decompression and hydration of cellular membranes of interest (MOIs) covering plasma membrane, lysosomes, mitochondria, E

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Calvo J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8849034 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature