A BIRD’S EYE VIEW: TRACKING SLOW NANOMETER-SCALE MOVEMENTS OF SINGLE MOLECULAR NANO-ASSEMBLIES

By Nicole Michelotti, Chamaree de Silva, Alexander Johnson-Buck, Anthony J. Manzo, N. Walter. Methods in Enzymology, 2010

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Recent improvements in methods of single-particle fluorescence tracking have permitted detailed studies of molecular motion on the nanometer scale. In a quest to introduce these tools to the burgeoning field of DNA nanotechnology, we have exploited fluorescence imaging with one-nanometer accuracy (FIONA) and single-molecule high-resolution colocalization (SHREC) to monitor the diffusive behavior of synthetic molecular walkers, dubbed “spiders”, at the single-molecule level. Here we discuss the imaging methods used, results from tracking individual spiders on pseudo-one-dimensional surfaces, and some of the unique experimental challenges presented by the low velocities (~3 nm/min) of these nanowalkers. These experiments demonstrate the promise of fluorescent particle tracking as a tool for the detailed characterization of synthetic molecular nanosystems at the single-molecule level.

Subfields: Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/778b9cde0dc2d161099a2ba051532079b76f1502