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Podosomes are ubiquitous cellular structures important to diverse processes including cell invasion, migration, bone resorption, and immune surveillance. Structurally, podosomes consist of a protrusive actin core surrounded by adhesion proteins. Although podosome protrusion forces have been quantified, the magnitude, spatial distribution, and orientation of the opposing tensile forces remain poorly characterized. Here we use DNA nanotechnology to create probes that measure and manipulate podosome tensile forces with molecular piconewton (pN) resolution. Specifically, Molecular Tension-Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (MT-FLIM) produces maps of the cellular adhesive landscape, revealing ring-like tensile forces surrounding podosome cores. Photocleavable adhesion ligands, breakable DNA force probes, and pharmacological inhibition demonstrate local mechanical coupling between integrin tension and actin protrusion. Thus, podosomes use pN integrin forces to sense and respond to substrate mechanics. This work deepens our understanding of podosome mechanotransduction and contributes tools that are widely applicable for studying receptor mechanics at dynamic interfaces.

Desmosomes are cell–cell junctions that provide mechanical integrity to epithelial and cardiac tissues. Desmosomes have two distinct adhesive states, calcium-dependent and hyperadhesive, which balance tissue plasticity and strength. A highly ordered array of cadherins in the adhesive interface is hypothesized to drive hyperadhesion, but how desmosome structure confers adhesive state is still elusive. We employed fluorescence polarization microscopy to show that cadherin order is not required for hyperadhesion induced by pharmacologic and genetic approaches. FRAP experiments in cells treated with the PKCα inhibitor Gö6976 revealed that cadherins, plakoglobin, and desmoplakin have significantly reduced exchange in and out of hyperadhesive desmosomes. To test whether this was a result of enhanced keratin association, we used the desmoplakin mutant S2849G, which conferred reduced protein exchange. We propose that inside-out regulation of protein exchange modulates adhesive function, whereby proteins are “locked in” to hyperadhesive desmosomes while protein exchange confers plasticity on calcium-dependent desmosomes, thereby providing rapid control of adhesion.