Atomic force microscopy of viruses.
Atomic force microscopy of viruses.
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DOI：
10.1007/978-94-007-6552-8_8
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
de Pablo, Pedro J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
de Pablo, Pedro J
原子力显微镜（AFM）是一个有用的工具，以获得纳米分辨率的图像，也执行一定的物理表征的标本，包括他们的刚度和机械弹性。除了从材料科学到生物学的广泛应用外，该技术还可以在各种条件下工作，只要样品支撑在固体表面上，在空气中，超高真空中，或者最重要的是在病毒研究中，在液体中。该技术的适应性还取决于它可以处理的标本的各种尺寸，例如原子、分子、分子复合物（包括病毒和细胞），以及观察真实的动态过程的可能性。事实上，AFM有助于单分子实验，不仅能够看到而且能够触摸所研究的材料（即，进行机械操作），并且构成材料表征的基本信息源。特别是，在纳米级的病毒和其他生物分子聚集体的机械性能的研究，提供了一组重要的数据，有助于阐述分子生物机械的机械化学结构/功能模型，扩大和补充通过其他结构技术获得的信息。
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a helpful tool to acquire nanometric-resolution images, and also to perform a certain physical characterization of specimens, including their stiffness and mechanical resilience. Besides of the wide range of applications, from materials science to biology, this technique works in a variety of conditions as long as the sample is supported on a solid surface, in air, ultra high vacuum or, most importantly for virus research, in liquids. The adaptability of this technique is also fostered by the variety of sizes of the specimens that it can dealt with, such as atoms, molecules, molecular complexes including viruses and cells, and the possibility to observe dynamic processes in real time. Indeed, AFM facilitates single molecule experiments enabling not only to see but also to touch the material under study (i.e., to undertake mechanical manipulations), and constitutes a fundamental source of information for material characterization. In particular, the study of the mechanical properties at the nanoscale of viruses and other biomolecular aggregates, is providing an important set of data which help to elaborate mechano-chemical structure/function models of molecular biomachines, expanding and complementing the information obtained by other structural techniques.