FIGURE 1:

Model of mechanosensing with three exemplary systems (GPIb, TCR, and integrin), which is broken into four steps: 1) mechanopresentation; 2) mechanoreception; 3) mechanotransmission; and 4) mechanotransduction. Purple, orange, green, and red arrows indicate the location of each step carried out by a molecule or molecular assembly: the mechanopresenter, mechanoreceptor, mechanotransmitter, and mechanotransducer, respectively. Black arrows indicates external force, F. Steps of mechanosensing of a generic model (A) and three model systems, GPIb (B), TCR (C), and integrin (D), were depicted in correspondence to the proposed model. Due to the existence of multiple mechanosensing mechanisms in integrins, the talin unfolding mechanism is selected as representative in D.