title: Single molecule detection, thermal fluctuation and life.
abstract: Single molecule detection has contributed to our understanding of the unique mechanisms of life. Unlike artificial man-made machines, biological molecular machines integrate thermal noises rather than avoid them. For example, single molecule detection has demonstrated that myosin motors undergo biased Brownian motion for stepwise movement and that single protein molecules spontaneously change their conformation, for switching to interactions with other proteins, in response to thermal fluctuation. Thus, molecular machines have flexibility and efficiency not seen in artificial machines.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University.
authors.forename: Toshio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yanagida
authors.forename: Yoshiharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishii
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009218:Myosins / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D000072760:Single Molecule Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D009218:Myosins