Fig. 6.

A molecular wedge mechanism for Yoda1-mediated Piezo1 activation. a In absence of membrane tension, the Piezo1 arm (blue) is in a “flexed” position (only one arm is represented for clarity). b In presence of a sub-threshold stimulus, the arm is slightly extended due to the flattening of the lipid bilayer but not enough to open the pore. c By binding between Repeat A (magenta) and the N-terminal part of the arm, Yoda1 acts like a wedge by decoupling these two domains, hence increasing tension-induced arm extension. This wedge-like effect ultimately leads to channel opening in the presence of sub-threshold stimuli. The mechanism by which the lever motion opens the channel gate is unknown