Figure 1.

Piezo1 channel flattens, and its CED becomes exposed in response to increased membrane tension. For each system, the applied negative pressure in each simulation is indicated with different colors: black, 1 bar; red, −5 bar; green, −20 bar; blue, −30 bar; and orange, −40 bar. (A) Shown are snapshots of the last frame from simulations of Piezo1 embedded in a model membrane bilayer. (B) Given is the correlation between the area, i.e., x-side × y-side, of the simulated box (A_box) and the RMSD calculated using the protein Cα of the Piezo1 blades. (C) Shown is the RMSD calculated using the protein Cα of the CED, dashed lines (lower values), and of the rest of the protein (i.e., the Piezo1 blades) and straight lines (higher values). (D) Shown is the A_proj (indicated by a dashed blue circle in A as a function of time for all the systems; see Materials and methods). The timeline for the Piezo1^DLPC, Piezo1^−40.rep1, and Piezo1^−40.rep2 systems (values translated by 50 ns to 100∗ ns for clarity) is shown in purple, magenta, and dark green, respectively. For the two repeat simulations at −40 bar, the timelines are colored in orange (first repeat) and dark orange (second repeat). The transparent regions show the standard deviation. To see this figure in color, go online.