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Detection of Membrane Mechanical Properties and Endocytosis by Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy

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Membrane Biophysics

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Abstract

Membranes are crucial for cellular life since they partition cells into different functional and physically separated compartments. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) makes it possible to observe, manipulate, and explore the cell membranes at a molecular resolution and therefore has produced a wealth of new opportunities in cell biology, including understanding the nanoscale organization and dynamics of cell membranes and cell walls, measuring cell mechanics and cell adhesion, and unraveling the molecular elasticity of cellular proteins and the mechanisms by which they assemble into nanodomains in the membrane. Single molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) based on AFM enables the characterization of the mechanical response of biological matter at the nanometer scale. SMFS techniques exert and/or quantify forces to allow manipulation and characterization of the mechanical properties, functional state, conformations, and interactions of biological systems to molecular resolution. Here, we will mainly introduce the studies of cell membrane mechanics and dynamic process of endocytosis by AFM-based SMFS.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31330082, 21773017 and 21673023) and Jilin Provincial Science Research Foundation of China (No. 20160520133JH).

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  1. School of Chemistry and Life Science, Advanced Institute of Materials Science, Changchun University of Technology, Changchun, 130012, China

    Yuping Shan

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Correspondence to Yuping Shan .

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  1. Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Hongda Wang

  2. Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Guohui Li

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Shan, Y. (2018). Detection of Membrane Mechanical Properties and Endocytosis by Single Molecule Force Spectroscopy. In: Wang, H., Li, G. (eds) Membrane Biophysics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6823-2_4

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