Force spectroscopy is a dynamic analytical technique that allows the study of the mechanical properties of single polymer molecules or proteins, or individual chemical bonds. It is performed by pulling on the system under scrutiny with controlled forces. As a single-molecule technique, as opposed to typical ensemble spectroscopies, it allows a researcher to determine properties of the particular molecule under study. In particular, rare events such as conformational change, which are masked in an ensemble, may be observed.
The name "force spectroscopy", although widely used in the scientific community, is somewhat misleading, because there is no true matter-radiation interaction. Force spectroscopy measures the behavior of a molecule under stretching or torsional mechanical force. In this way a great deal has been learned in recent years about the mechanochemical coupling in the enzymes responsible for muscle contraction, transport in the cell, energy generation (F1-ATPase), DNA replication and transcription (polymerases), DNA unknotting and unwinding (topoisomerases and helicases), and so on.
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Famous quotes containing the word force:
“The force of a death should be enormous but how can you know what kind of man you’ve killed or who was the braver and stronger if you have to peer through layers of glass that deliver the image but obscure the meaning of the act? War has a conscience or it’s ordinary murder.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)