Figure 7: The effect of Vd1 on the FL-talin rod.
(a) The purple curve denotes the force-extension curve of FL-talin rod in the absence of Vd1. The other curves (cycles 1–3) depict three representative unfolding force extension curves in the presence of 100 nM Vd1. The four unfolding steps in cycle 2 are marked by arrows. The data were smoothed by 0.05 s time window for clearer presentation. Bottom: cartoon showing the changes in conformation of talin rod in the presence of Vd1. (b) Talin as a force buffer in the cellular force transmission pathway. Stochastic unfolding/refolding of talin rod domains in response to changes in force ensures that force across the whole talin-mediated, force-transmission pathway can be maintained at a low state (<10 pN) even across very different talin end-to-end extension fluctuations.
