Abstract
This chapter covers the field of AFM-based force spectroscopy (FS) as applied to biological samples ranging from single molecules up to cells. After a brief introduction to atomic force microscopy and to the basic physical phenomena that are involved in FS measurements, we describe some FS experiments that have been conducted using biological systems of increasing complexities. Several experiments describing FS analysis of DNA, proteins, polysaccharides, and whole cells are successively presented.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ashkin, A. (1980) Applications of laser-radiation pressure. Science 210: 1081–1088.
Amblard, F., B. Yurke, A. Pargellis, et al. (1996) A magnetic manipulator for studying local rheology and micromechanical properties of biological systems. Review of Scientific Instruments 67: 818–827.
Smith, S. B., L. Finzi and C. Bustamante (1992) Direct mechanical measurements of the elasticity of single DNA-molecules by using magnetic-beads. Science 258: 1122–1126.
Ishijima, A., T. Doi, K. Sakurada, et al. (1991) Sub-piconewton force fluctuations of actomyosin in vitro. Nature 352: 301–306.
Florin, E. L., V. T. Moy and H. E. Gaub (1994) Adhesion forces between individual ligand-receptorpairs. Science 264: 415–417.
Binnig, G., C. F. Quate and C. Gerber (1986) Atomic force microscopy. Physical Review Letters 56: 930–933.
Kasas, S., L. Alonso, P. Jacquet, et al. (2010) Microcontroller-driven fluid-injection system for atomic force microscopy. Review of Scientific Instruments 81.
Cappella, B. and G. Dietler (1999) Force-distance curves by atomic force microscopy. Surface Science Reports 34: 1–104.
EssevazRoulet, B., U. Bockelmann and F. Heslot (1997) Mechanical separation of the complementary strands of DNA. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 94: 11935–11940.
Yan, H., S. H. Park, G. Finkelstein, et al. (2003) DNA-templated self-assembly of protein arrays and highly conductive nanowires. Science 301: 1882–1884.
Liu, Q. H., L. M. Wang, A. G. Frutos, et al. (2000) DNA computing on surfaces. Nature 403: 175–179.
Rief, M., H. Clausen-Schaumann and H. E. Gaub (1999) Sequence-dependent mechanics of single DNA molecules. Nature Structural Biology 6: 346–349.
Krautbauer, R., M. Rief and H. E. Gaub (2003) Unzipping DNA oligomers. Nano Letters 3: 493–496.
Cluzel, P., A. Lebrun, C. Heller, et al. (1996) DNA: an extensible molecule. Science 271: 792–794.
Smith, S.B., Y. Cui, and C. Bustamante (1996) Overstretching B-DNA: the elastic response of individual double-stranded and single-stranded DNA molecules. Science 271: 795-799.
Cocco, S., J. Yan, J. Léger, D. Chatenay and J.F. Marko (2004) Overstretching and force-driven strand separation of double-helix DNA. Phys. Rev. E 70: 011910.
Sulkowska, J. I. and M. Cieplak (2007) Mechanical stretching of proteins – a theoretical survey of the Protein Data Bank. Journal of Physics-Condensed Matter 19.
Bizzarri, A. R. and S. Cannistraro (2009) Atomic force spectroscopy in biological complex formation: strategies and perspectives. Journal of Physical Chemistry B 113: 16449–16464.
Livadaru, L., R. R. Netz and H. J. Kreuzer (2003) Stretching response of discrete semiflexible polymers. Macromolecules 36: 3732–3744.
Bustamante, C., J. F. Marko, E. D. Siggia, et al. (1994) Entropic elasticity of lambda-phage DNA. Science 265: 1599–1600.
West, D. K., D. J. Brockwell, P. D. Olmsted, et al. (2006) Mechanical resistance of proteins explained using simple molecular models. Biophysical Journal 90: 287–297.
Schlierf, M. and M. Rief (2005) Temperature softening of a protein in single-molecule experiments. Journal of Molecular Biology 354: 497–503.
Dougan, L., G. Feng, H. Lu, et al. (2008) Solvent molecules bridge the mechanical unfolding transition state of a protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105: 3185–3190.
Evans, E. and K. Ritchie (1997) Dynamic strength of molecular adhesion bonds. Biophysical Journal 72: 1541–1555.
Carrion-Vazquez, M., P. E. Marszalek, A. F. Oberhauser, et al. (1999) Atomic force microscopy captures length phenotypes in single proteins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 96: 11288–11292.
Brockwell, D. J., E. Paci, R. C. Zinober, et al. (2003) Pulling geometry defines the mechanical resistance of a beta-sheet protein. Nature Structural Biology 10: 731–737.
Marszalek, P. E., H. B. Li, A. F. Oberhauser, et al. (2002) Chair-boat transitions in single polysaccharide molecules observed with force-ramp AFM. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99: 4278–4283.
Oberhauser, A. F., P. K. Hansma, M. Carrion-Vazquez, et al. (2001) Stepwise unfolding of titin under force-clamp atomic force microscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98: 468–472.
Fernandez, J. M. and H. B. Li (2004) Force-clamp spectroscopy monitors the folding trajectory of a single protein. Science 303: 1674–1678.
Garcia-Manyes, S., J. Brujic, C. L. Badilla, et al. (2007) Force-clamp spectroscopy of single-protein monomers reveals the individual unfolding and folding pathways of I27 and ubiquitin. Biophysical Journal 93: 2436–2446.
Bullard, B., T. Garcia, V. Benes, et al. (2006) The molecular elasticity of the insect flight muscle proteins projectin and kettin. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103: 4451–4456.
Cao, Y. and H. B. Li (2006) Single molecule force spectroscopy reveals a weakly populated microstate of the FnIII domains of tenascin. Journal of Molecular Biology 361: 372–381.
Rief, M., J. Pascual, M. Saraste, et al. (1999) Single molecule force spectroscopy of spectrin repeats: low unfolding forces in helix bundles. Journal of Molecular Biology 286: 553–561.
Brujic, J., R. I. Z. Hermans, S. Garcia-Manyes, et al. (2007) Dwell-time distribution analysis of polyprotein unfolding using force-clamp spectroscopy. Biophysical Journal 92: 2896–2903.
Brown, A. E. X., R. I. Litvinov, D. E. Discher, et al. (2007) Forced unfolding of coiled-coils in fibrinogen by single-molecule AFM. Biophysical Journal 92: L39–L41.
Rief, M., M. Gautel, F. Oesterhelt, et al. (1997) Reversible unfolding of individual titin immunoglobulin domains by AFM. Science 276: 1109–1112.
Linke, W. A. and A. Grutzner (2008) Pulling single molecules of titin by AFM – recent advances and physiological implications. Pflugers Archiv-European Journal of Physiology 456: 101–115.
Schwesinger, F., R. Ros, T. Strunz, et al. (2000) Unbinding forces of single antibody-antigen complexes correlate with their thermal dissociation rates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97: 9972–9977.
Lee, C. K., Y. M. Wang, L. S. Huang, et al. (2007) Atomic force microscopy: determination of unbinding force, off rate and energy barrier for protein-ligand interaction. Micron 38: 446–461.
Yersin, A., H. Hirling, P. Steiner, et al. (2003) Interactions between synaptic vesicle fusion proteins explored by atomic force microscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100: 8736–8741.
Rief, M., F. Oesterhelt, B. Heymann, et al. (1997) Single molecule force spectroscopy on polysaccharides by atomic force microscopy. Science 275: 1295–1297.
Marszalek, P. E., H. B. Li and J. M. Fernandez (2001) Fingerprinting polysaccharides with single-molecule atomic force microscopy. Nature Biotechnology 19: 258–262.
Sletmoen, M., G. Maurstad, P. Sikorski, et al. (2003) Characterisation of bacterial polysaccharides: steps towards single-molecular studies. Carbohydrate Research 338: 2459–2475.
Abu-Lail, N. I. and T. A. Camesano (2003) Polysaccharide properties probed with atomic force microscopy. Journal of Microscopy-Oxford 212: 217–238.
Ikai, A., R. Afrin, A. Itoh, et al. (2002) Force measurements for membrane protein manipulation. Colloids and Surfaces B-Biointerfaces 23: 165–171.
Muller, D. J., M. Krieg, D. Alsteens, et al. (2009) New frontiers in atomic force microscopy: analyzing interactions from single-molecules to cells. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 20: 4–13.
Verbelen, C. and Y. F. Dufrene (2009) Direct measurement of Mycobacterium–fibronectin interactions. Integrative Biology 1: 296–300.
Roduit, C., G. van der Goot, P. de Los Rios, et al. (2008) Elastic Membrane Heterogeneity of Living Cells Revealed by Stiff Nanoscale Membrane Domains. Biophysical Journal 94: 1521–1532.
Carrion-Vazquez, M., A. F. Oberhauser, T. E. Fisher, et al. (2000) Mechanical design of proteins-studied by single-molecule force spectroscopy and protein engineering. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 74: 63–91.
Greenleaf, W. J., M. T. Woodside and S. M. Block (2007) High-resolution, single-molecule measurements of biomolecular motion. Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure 36: 171–190.
Ikai, A. and R. Afrin (2003) Toward mechanical manipulations of cell membranes and membrane proteins using an atomic force microscope – an invited review. Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics 39: 257–277.
Puchner, E. M. and H. E. Gaub (2009) Force and function: probing proteins with AFM-based force spectroscopy. Current Opinion in Structural Biology 19: 605–614.
Afrin, R. and A. Ikai (2006) Force profiles of protein pulling with or without cytoskeletal links studied by AFM. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 348: 238–244.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kasas, S., Roduit, C., Dietler, G. (2011). Nano-scale Force Spectroscopy Applied to Biological Samples. In: Carrara, S. (eds) Nano-Bio-Sensing. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6169-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6169-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6168-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6169-3
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)