Fig. 1: An erect penis mechanically stretches SMCs and activates YAP/TAZ.

Representative images of the NPT from healthy men (a, upper) and ED patients (a, bottom) during their sleep. The erectile frequency (a, right), mean erection time (b) and erectile hardness (c) between healthy men and ED patients were quantified. n = 6 biologically independent samples. d, AFM stiffness map images (left) and quantifications (right) of the stiffness from the flaccid penis (n = 11) and erectile penis (n = 14) of mice. Each point represents a detected area from 3 mice. e–f Heatmap and KEGG signaling pathways show the significantly changed genes and signaling pathways between the erectile penis and flaccid penis of mice. g, h The expression of the YAP/TAZ target genes Cyr61 and Ptx3 from the erectile penis (n = 5) and flaccid penis (n = 4) of mice. Data are presented as the mean ± sem. i T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) plot of single cell under flaccid and erection conditions. j Representative KEGG signaling terms enriched in genes differentially expressed between flaccid and erection group for each cell type. k GSEA analyze of YAP/TAZ target genes between flaccid and erection conditions of SMCs. l Heatmap plots of YAP/TAZ target genes between flaccid and erection conditions in SMCs. m Representative ISH images of the YAP/TAZ target genes Cyr61 from mice’s flaccid and erectile penis, the experiments were repeated three independent times with similar results. Box plots indicate median (middle line), 25th, 75th percentile (box), minima, maxima and all points. The statistical analysis was calculated by two-sides unpaired Student’s t-test, the confidence interval is 95%. Scale bars, 10 µm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.