Inactivation Kinetics and Mechanical Gating of Piezo1 Ion Channels Depend on Subdomains within the Cap (Cell Reports)

Lewis and Grandl combine a chimeric screen and cysteine crosslinking to identify small subdomains of the cap of mechanically activated Piezo1 ion channels that must have conformational flexibility for mechanical gating. They further show that electrostatic interactions couple one of these domains to the channel blade.