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Atomic force microscopy of purple membranes
Author(s) -
Worcester D. L.,
Miller R.G.,
Bryant P. J.
Publication year - 1988
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.1365-2818.1988.tb01454.x
Subject(s) - bacteriorhodopsin , membrane , atomic force microscopy , diffraction , crystallography , electron microscope , molecule , microscopy , chemistry , microscope , hexagonal crystal system , materials science , nanotechnology , optics , physics , biochemistry , organic chemistry
SUMMARY The surface structure of purple membranes was imaged using an atomic force probe mounted in a scanning tunnelling microscope. One of the two different membrane surfaces showed protruding, disc‐shaped features forming an hexagonal lattice with about 6 nm centre to centre spacing. These are identified as the cytoplasmic surfaces of trimers of bacteriorhodopsin molecules and are correlated with the structural information on bacteriorhodopsin obtained from numerous earlier electron microscope and diffraction studies.