{"doi":"10.1101/2021.12.31.474658","title":"STReTCh: a strategy for facile detection of mechanical forces across proteins in cells","abstract":"ABSTRACT Numerous proteins experience and respond to mechanical forces as an integral part of their cellular functions, but measuring these forces remains a practical challenge. Here, we present a compact, 11 kDa molecular tension sensor termed STReTCh (Sensing Tension by Reactive Tag Characterization). Unlike existing genetically encoded tension sensors, STReTCh does not rely on experimentally demanding Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based measurements and is compatible with typical fix-and-stain protocols. Using a magnetic tweezers assay, we calibrate the STReTCh module and show that it responds to physiologically relevant, piconewton forces. As proof-of-concept, we use an extracellular STReTCh-based sensor to visualize cell-generated forces at integrin-based adhesion complexes. In addition, we incorporate STReTCh into vinculin, a cytoskeletal adaptor protein, and show that STReTCh reports on forces transmitted between the cytoskeleton and cellular adhesion complexes. These data illustrate the utility of STReTCh as a broadly applicable tool for the measurement molecular-scale forces in biological systems.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":300785,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9503,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":225338,"name":"Vipul T. Vachharajani","orcid":"0000-0002-9590-4883","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":225350,"name":"Alexander R. Dunn","orcid":"0000-0001-6096-4600","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":579522,"name":"Brian L. Zhong","orcid":"0000-0001-8818-5692","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":23,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:57.812980Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}