Molecular tension indicators reveal unexpectedly complex regulation of tension in live mouse organs

Abstract Since the emergence of molecular tension sensors, the understanding of mechanical forces has advanced substantially. However, visualizing molecular tension in mammalian tissues has remained challenging owing to the technical constraints of the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based molecular tension sensors. Here, we develop a molecular tension sensor based on circularly permuted EGFP with an elastic linker, which is inserted into either αActinin or αCatenin and then fused with mCherry at the C-terminus to simultaneously visualize tension and the amount of sensor protein. This single-fluorophore tension indicator enables subtle tension changes to be visualized simply from color tone under superresolution microscopy. We further generate H11 knock-in mice expressing these indicators, revealing a molecular-specific regulation of mechanical load within tissues. Thus, our molecular tension indicators provide a powerful approach for probing the complex and heterogeneous regulation of mechanical forces in vivo mammalian systems.