title: Imaging and Force Recognition of Single Molecular Behaviors Using Atomic Force Microscopy.
abstract: The advent of atomic force microscopy (AFM) has provided a powerful tool for investigating the behaviors of single native biological molecules under physiological conditions. AFM can not only image the conformational changes of single biological molecules at work with sub-nanometer resolution, but also sense the specific interactions of individual molecular pair with piconewton force sensitivity. In the past decade, the performance of AFM has been greatly improved, which makes it widely used in biology to address diverse biomedical issues. Characterizing the behaviors of single molecules by AFM provides considerable novel insights into the underlying mechanisms guiding life activities, contributing much to cell and molecular biology. In this article, we review the recent developments of AFM studies in single-molecule assay. The related techniques involved in AFM single-molecule assay were firstly presented, and then the progress in several aspects (including molecular imaging, molecular mechanics, molecular recognition, and molecular activities on cell surface) was summarized. The challenges and future directions were also discussed.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. limi@sia.cn.
authors.forename: Mi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Device, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China. dandangdan@sina.com.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. lqliu@sia.cn.
authors.forename: Lianqing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. xining@hku.hk.|Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. xining@hku.hk.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Robotics, Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China. ycwang@sia.cn.
authors.forename: Yuechao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D036103:Nanotechnology
keywords: atomic force microscopy; mechanics; molecular recognition; single-molecule; topography