ISSN: 2155-9937
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Editorial
AFM Meets Magnetic Tweezers to Probe Protein Dynamics under A Wide
Range of Forces
Author(s): Richter Nadia*
Magnetic Tweezers (MT) is a single-molecule technology that
allows researchers to investigate the mechanical characteristics of
nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid interactions in real time.
A MT system, contrary to its name, does not manage items in
the same way that a pair of macroscopic tweezers does. Because it
uses the magnetic field gradient generated by permanent
magnets to pull micrometer-size magnetic beads, the position of
which can be tracked in three dimensions using pictures given by
an inverted optical microscope and CMOS or CCD cameras, an
MT is truly a magnetic puller. Fixed beads are used to determine
the height of a glass surface as a zero-height reference (Refbead).
With a DNA molecule with proper functionalization at
their ends, DNA beads are anchored to the glass surface. The.. View More»