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Engineering tunable catch bonds with DNA
Biological catch bonds counter-intuitively strengthen when pulled. Here, the authors present tuneable artificial catch bonds made from DNA for the study of biomimetic adhesion and the creation of force-strengthening materials.
Cells that function in environments with fluid shear, such as E. coli in the intestine and neutrophils in the bloodstream 22, rely exclusively on catch bonds to facilitate rolling adhesion motility across a large range of external forces. a Experimental force-extension curves in chronological order from a medium ramp experiment, showing non-history dependent switching between strong (red) and weak (blue) rupture events for the hook9/9-jaw 8/18 construct shown in Fig. Binding slip-DNA to the membrane-bound E-cadherin was recently shown to impact cell junction formation 44, and researchers have been using slip-behaving tension gauge tethers (TGT) to measure and change motility and spreading for years 4, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52.
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