Mechanotransduction - Mission

Our research aims to expand our understanding of how organisms sense and respond to mechanical stimulation.

Although the property of mechanotransduction is usually associated with the specialized sensory cells involved in hearing, balance, proprioception and touch, it is in fact a general property exhibited by cells when they are touched, rubbed, flexed, stretched, compressed or vibrated.

Such stimulation can arise both externally, as in the flexing of plants and trees by the wind and rain, or internally, as in the rhythmic pulsing of blood against the walls of the vascular system, and can profoundly influence the growth, development and functioning of plants and animals alike.

In humans and other mammals, mechanotransduction is critically involved in the bone-building processes elicited by the compressive force of gravity on the skeleton; in the normal and pathological (e.g. atherosclerotic) responses of the vascular lining to the sheer forces generated by flowing blood; in modifying the structure and properties of skeletal muscle in response to overload, or the enlargement of an over-worked heart (cardiac hypertrophy) in response to elevated blood pressure.

As for plants, horticulturists and farmers have long appreciated that wind-induced flexing decreases both the size and yield of crop plants, and that mechanostimulation in general slows the development of plants. In addition, it has been shown further that mechanical perturbation affects a plant's differentiation and its responses to many other environmental stimuli, such as gravity, light, cold and drought stress.

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