1932

Abstract

Directly observing individual protein molecules in action at high spatiotemporal resolution has long been a holy grail for biological science. This is because we long have had to infer how proteins function from the static snapshots of their structures and dynamic behavior of optical makers attached to the molecules. This limitation has recently been removed to a large extent by the materialization of high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM). HS-AFM allows us to directly visualize the structure dynamics and dynamic processes of biological molecules in physiological solutions, at subsecond to sub-100-ms temporal resolution, without disturbing their function. In fact, dynamically acting molecules such as myosin V walking on an actin filament and bacteriorhodopsin in response to light are successfully visualized. In this review, we first describe theoretical considerations for the highest possible imaging rate of this new microscope, and then highlight recent imaging studies. Finally, the current limitation and future challenges to explore are described.

Associated Article

There are media items related to this article:
High-Speed AFM and Applications to Biomolecular Systems: Supplemental Video 5

Associated Article

There are media items related to this article:
High-Speed AFM and Applications to Biomolecular Systems: Supplemental Video 2

Associated Article

There are media items related to this article:
High-Speed AFM and Applications to Biomolecular Systems: Supplemental Video 4

Associated Article

There are media items related to this article:
High-Speed AFM and Applications to Biomolecular Systems: Supplemental Video 1

Associated Article

There are media items related to this article:
High-Speed AFM and Applications to Biomolecular Systems: Supplemental Video 3
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-biophys-083012-130324
2013-05-06
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-biophys-083012-130324
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-biophys-083012-130324
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error