title: Conformational change of bacteriorhodopsin quantitatively monitored by microcantilever sensors.
abstract: Bacteriorhodopsin proteoliposomes were used as a model system to explore the applicability of micromechanical cantilever arrays to detect conformational changes in membrane protein patches. The three main results of our study concern: 1), reliable functionalization of micromechanical cantilever arrays with proteoliposomes using ink jet spotting; 2), successful detection of the prosthetic retinal removal (bleaching) from the bacteriorhodopsin protein by measuring the induced nanomechanical surface stress change; and 3), the quantitative response thereof, which depends linearly on the amount of removed retinal. Our results show this technique to be a potential tool to measure membrane protein-based receptor-ligand interactions and conformational changes.
authors.affiliation: National Center of Competence for Research in Nanoscale Science, Institute of Physics, and Maurice E. Müller Institute, Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Natalija
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Backmann
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vögtli
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bietsch
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Engel
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hegner
mesh_terms: D001436:Bacteriorhodopsins / Q000737:chemistry*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D036103:Nanotechnology; D038761:Photobleaching; D040081:Protein Array Analysis; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011510:Proteolipids / Q000737:chemistry; D012172:Retinaldehyde / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011510:Proteolipids; C020485:proteoliposomes; D001436:Bacteriorhodopsins; D012172:Retinaldehyde