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Protein folding and unfolding under force
Author(s) -
Jagannathan Bharat,
Marqusee Susan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.22321
Subject(s) - chemistry , protein folding , folding (dsp implementation) , biophysics , biochemistry , engineering , electrical engineering , biology
The recent revolution in optics and instrumentation has enabled the study of protein folding using extremely low mechanical forces as the denaturant. This exciting development has led to the observation of the protein folding process at single molecule resolution and its response to mechanical force. Here, we describe the principles and experimental details of force spectroscopy on proteins, with a focus on the optical tweezers instrument. Several recent results will be discussed to highlight the importance of this technique in addressing a variety of questions in the protein folding field. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 99: 860–869, 2013.