title: Femtonewton force spectroscopy of single extended DNA molecules.
abstract: We studied the thermal fluctuations of single DNA molecules with a novel optical tweezer based force spectroscopy technique. This technique combines femtonewton sensitivity with millisecond time resolution, surpassing the sensitivity of previous force measurements in aqueous solution with comparable bandwidth by a hundredfold. Our data resolve long-standing questions concerning internal hydrodynamics of the polymer and anisotropy in the molecular relaxation times and friction coefficients. The dynamics at high extension show interesting nonlinear behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA.
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Meiners
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Quake
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force
chemical_list: D004247:DNA