Figure 2.

Coordinated tilting of Piezo1 beams and ion pore helices in response to increased membrane tension. (A) Given is the partial density profile along the z direction (that is perpendicular to the bilayer x, y plane) for the protein (black line), the membrane (magenta line), and the solvent (i.e., water and ions; cyan line). Values from the first repeat at −40 bar are shown. Insets are the last frames from simulations, duplicated from Fig. 1A and for illustrative purpose only. (B) Shown is a tilt angle relative to the bilayer normal for the beam helix. The transparent regions show the standard deviation. (C) Shown is the correlation between the RMSD of the Piezo1 blades and the tilt angle relative to the bilayer normal of the TM38 helix. (D) Shown is the correlation between the distances from the center of mass of the TM38 or TM37 helices and the Piezo1 pore. (E) Shown is the correlation between the RMSD of the Piezo1 blades and the tilt angle relative to the bilayer normal of the TM37 helix. (F) Given are snapshots of the last frame from the +1- and −40-bar systems with the Piezo1 shown from the extracellular side. The center is highlighted with a box. The TM38 (cartoon) and the TM37 (ribbon) from each Piezo1 chain are also shown. Membrane and solvent are not displayed. The color code for the applied negative pressure in each simulation is the same as in Fig. 1. To see this figure in color, go online.