Fig. 2: Slip-catch-slip response of the tip-link interface.

a Schematic of the force-clamp experiment where Pcdh15 EC 1-2 (red) is attached to the cantilever and Cdh23 EC1-2 (blue) is onto the surface. b The bond-survival probabilities for the tip-link interface are shown here for the seven clamping forces of 28, 41, 58, 80, 103, 119 and 143 pN containing n = 20, 29, 57, 24, 23, 23, and 26 datapoints, respectively. Solid lines represent the exponential-decay fit. c The dependence of bond-lifetime on clamping forces is shown here for wild-type (WT, black squares) and R113G-mutant (red squares). The WT shows tri-phasic slip-catch-slip behavior. Data are presented as survival probability fit values from (b) ± fitting error. Black and red solid lines are the kinetic model fits (see Method). d Distributions of inter-domain angles between EC1 and EC2 of Cdh23 (left) and Pcdh15 (center) at the 61 interpolated points between the force range of 10 and 150 pN from FISST simulations. Variations in inter-domain angle are accompanied by a change in buried surface area (right). (n = 3 independent simulations, see Supplementary Fig. 7). e The per-residue differential buried surface area is calculated by subtracting the buried surface area at 10–20 pN force range from the 70–80 pN force range. The residues with a positive differential buried surface area are colored green, with darker shades representing higher values. The residues colored as red show a negative differential buried surface area, with darker shades representing larger negative values. f The percentage of frames showing the existence of specified salt-bridges at different force ranges. Notably, the salt-bridge R113-E78 persists at all forces. See also Supplementary Figs. 8–11.