Feel the force: Mechanosensitive molecular probes for plant mechanobiology

Mechanical stress plays a role in plant growth, differentiation and viability. This stress is always present, both originating from within (turgor pressure) and from the environment (wind and gravity) but how and to what extent these forces impact plant development is unknown. The reason for this is that directly visualizing forces on a microscale is extremely difficult since it is near impossible to attach plant tissues to force sensors, let alone individual cells. That is why we aim to develop fluorescent molecules that respond to mechanical stimuli which would then allow us to visualize forces on a microscale. Of course we need to make sure our sensor end up in the right place within plant tissue so besides visualizing forces we are also interested in if and why these molecules target specific structures in plants.