Premium
Watching molecular processes with the atomic force microscope: dynamics of polymer adsorption and desorption at the single molecule level
Author(s) -
GUNNING A. P.,
KIRBY A. R.,
MACKIE A. R.,
KROON P.,
WILLIAMSON G.,
MORRIS V. J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.0022-2720.2004.01391.x
Subject(s) - adsorption , atomic force microscopy , desorption , molecule , polymer , nanotechnology , molecular dynamics , chemistry , biological system , chemical physics , polysaccharide , process (computing) , substrate (aquarium) , materials science , computer science , computational chemistry , organic chemistry , biology , ecology , operating system
Summary The formation of networks is an important step in the synthesis of many biological assemblies. For example, during the synthesis of plant cell walls the factors which dictate the arrangement of the polymeric constituents that make up the cell wall are not yet understood. Factors such as site‐directed binding provide a possible theoretical background for beginning to understand the assembly of complex biological structures, but modelling of this process is difficult, time consuming and lacks experimental methods for verification. Through the use of atomic force microscopy (AFM) it has been demonstrated that changes in the binding of a single heterogeneous cell wall polysaccharide to a charged substrate can be followed in real time. Furthermore, subsequent image analysis allows the probability of binding of the molecule to be mapped to produce a real data set which is comparable with those obtained in simulation studies. In addition, these AFM studies have provided new mechanistic clues to the adsorption/desorption process of this polysaccharide.