title: Mechanical unfolding studies of protein molecules.
abstract: Atomic force microscopy (AFM) enables the pick up of a single protein molecule to apply a mechanical force. This technique, called "force spectroscopy," provides unique information about the intermediates and free energy landscape of the mechanical unfolding of proteins. In this review, we introduce the AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy of proteins and describe recent studies that answer some fundamental questions such as "is the mechanical resistance of proteins isotropic?", "what is the structure of the transition state in mechanical unfolding?", and "is mechanical unfolding related to biological functions?"
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa Prefecture 923-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa Prefecture 923-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Akiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa Prefecture 923-1292, Japan.
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawakami
keywords: dynamic force spectroscopy; free energy landscape; protein folding; single-molecule measurement; φ-value analysis