Filamentous biopolymers on surfaces: atomic force microscopy images compared with Brownian dynamics simulation of filament deposition.

ABSTRACT: Nanomechanical properties of filamentous biopolymers, such as the persistence length, may be determined from two-dimensional images of molecules immobilized on surfaces. For a single filament in solution, two principal adsorption scenarios are possible. Both scenarios depend primarily on the interaction strength between the filament and the support: i) For interactions in the range of the thermal energy, the filament can freely equilibrate on the surface during adsorption; ii) For interactions much stronger than the thermal energy, the filament will be captured by the surface without having equilibrated. Such a 'trapping' mechanism leads to more condensed filament images and hence to a smaller value for the apparent persistence length. To understand the capture mechanism in more detail we

SUBMITTER: Mucke N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2768466 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature