Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Combined single-molecule force and fluorescence measurements for biology. | J. Biol. Journal of Biology BioMed Central Minireview Combined single-molecule force and fluorescence measurements for biology Mark I Wallace Justin E Molloy and David R Trentham Address National Institute for Medical Research London NW7 1AA UK. Correspondence David R Trentham. E-mail dtrenth@ Published 14 April 2003 Journal of Biology 2003 2 4 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at http content 2 1 4 2003 BioMed Central Ltd Abstract Recent advances in single-molecule techniques allow the application of force to an individual biomolecule whilst simultaneously monitoring its response using fluorescent probes. The effects of applied mechanical load on single-enzyme turnovers biomolecular interactions and conformational changes can now be studied with nanometer precision and millisecond time resolution. Just as an entire organism can be treated as a collection of interacting cells so can a cell be considered as a collection of individual molecules a view that is essential for understanding the complex molecular interactions present in living systems. The current expansion in life-science research has been fuelled in part by the development of biophysical technologies some of which allow cellular processes to be examined at the level of a single molecule. In particular advances in solid-state lasers and detectors have led to the development of fluorescence techniques capable of resolving single molecules in aqueous solution at room temperature 1-7 . Now that the field is over a decade old the challenge for single-molecule research is no longer simply to demonstrate that this technique is possible but rather to provide fresh insight into specific biological problems. A key facet of future single-molecule experiments will be direct manipulation of a biomolecule whilst the outcome is simultaneously observed. Although it is relatively straightforward to change bulk parameters such as temperature or .
