Sensing force and charge at the nanoscale with a single-molecule tether.

ABSTRACT: Measuring the electrophoretic mobility of molecules is a powerful experimental approach for investigating biomolecular processes. A frequent challenge in the context of single-particle measurements is throughput, limiting the obtainable statistics. Here, we present a molecular force sensor and charge detector based on parallelised imaging and tracking of tethered double-stranded DNA functionalised with charged nanoparticles interacting with an externally applied electric field. Tracking the position of the tethered particle with simultaneous nanometre precision and microsecond temporal resolution allows us to detect and quantify the electrophoretic force down to the sub-piconewton scale. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this approach is suitable for detecting changes to the particle charge

SUBMITTER: Meng X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8319944 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature