Ibec Seminar. Miguel Angel Pozo
Tension-sensing membrane domains in mechanoadaption and mechanotransduction
MA del Pozo. Mechanoadaptation & Caveolae Biology Lab, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid 28029, Spain. madelpozo@cnic.es
My lab aims to understand how cells crosstalk with their environment to determine tissue homeostasis and disease. We combine cell biology, biophysics, systematic molecular profiling and in vivo disease models. A particular focus are caveolae, mechanosensing nanoinvaginations of the plasma membrane, key to understand the principles of cell and tissue mechanoadaption, and their role in cardiovascular disease, fibrosis and tumor progression. Here, I will present recent data providing details on the mechanical control of nuclear import of the transcriptional regulator YAP, and a novel mechanism of ECM deposition via exosomes.
I will also present newly identified dolines, large membrane depressions formed by caveolin-1 only, able to sense and flatten in response to weak and medium-strength forces. Thus, cells and tissues use at least two different mechanisms to detect force: one gradual and progressive mediated by dolines; the other abrupt, above a certain threshold, mediated by caveolae.
