Data from: Lipid composition and mechanical force underlie multi-modal regulation of Piezo1 gating

Piezo1 ion channels are widely expressed cellular mechanosensors. They
adopt an intrinsically curved shape when closed and are thought to open
when mechanical forces applied to the membrane favor a more flattened
conformation. By reconstituting Piezo1 channels into lipid vesicles, a
flattened conformation has been determined, however, the ion conduction
pore remained closed. In line with this observation, Piezo1 channels do
not exhibit mechanical activation in the kind of lipids used in the
structural studies. Here we show first that Piezo1 channels in
cell-derived membranes retain functional mechanical gating, and second,
that in cell-derived membranes they adopt a completely flattened disk
shape associated with large conformational changes within and around the
ion conduction pathway. These conformational changes occurring in
cell-derived lipid membranes, suggest that mechanical force is necessary
but insufficient, and that a specific membrane-derived cofactor apparently
complements mechanical force to activate Piezo1.