A Membrane Tension-Responsive Mechanosensitive DNA Nanomachine

Membrane curvature reflects physical forces operating on the lipid membrane, which plays important roles in cellular processes. Here, we design a mechanosensitive DNA (MSD) nanomachine that mimics natural mechanosensitive PIEZO channels to convert the membrane tension changes of lipid vesicles with different sizes into fluorescence signals in real time. The MSD nanomachine consists of an archetypical six-helix-bundle DNA nanopore, cholesterol-based membrane anchors, and a solvatochromic fluorophore, spiropyran (SP). We find that the DNA nanopore effectively amplifies subtle variations of the membrane tension, which effectively induces the isomerization of weakly emissive SP into highly emissive merocyanine isomers for visualizing membrane tension changes. By measuring the membrane tension via the fluorescence of MSD nanomachine, we establish the correlation between the membrane tension and the curvature that follows the Young-Laplace equation. This DNA nanotechnology-enabled strategy opens new routes to studying membrane mechanics in physiological and pathological settings.