Highly-Parallel Microfluidics-Based Force Spectroscopy on Single Cytoskeletal Motors

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Marta Urbanska - , Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light (Author)
  • Annemarie Lüdecke - , Nanotempter Technologies GmbH (Author)
  • Wilhelm J. Walter - , University of Potsdam (Author)
  • Antoine M. van Oijen - , University of Groningen, University of Wollongong (Author)
  • Karl E. Duderstadt - , University of Groningen, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Technical University of Munich (Author)
  • Stefan Diez - , Chair of BioNano-Tools, Clusters of Excellence PoL: Physics of Life, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (Author)

Abstract

Cytoskeletal motors transform chemical energy into mechanical work to drive essential cellular functions. Optical trapping experiments have provided crucial insights into the operation of these molecular machines under load. However, the throughput of such force spectroscopy experiments is typically limited to one measurement at a time. Here, a highly-parallel, microfluidics-based method that allows for rapid collection of force-dependent motility parameters of cytoskeletal motors with two orders of magnitude improvement in throughput compared to currently available methods is introduced. Tunable hydrodynamic forces to stepping kinesin-1 motors via DNA-tethered beads and utilize a large field of view to simultaneously track the velocities, run lengths, and interaction times of hundreds of individual kinesin-1 molecules under varying resisting and assisting loads are applied. Importantly, the 16 µm long DNA tethers between the motors and the beads significantly reduces the vertical component of the applied force pulling the motors away from the microtubule. The approach is readily applicable to other molecular systems and constitutes a new methodology for parallelized single-molecule force studies on cytoskeletal motors.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number2007388
JournalSmall
Volume17
Issue number18
Publication statusPublished - 23 Mar 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 33759372
ORCID /0000-0002-0750-8515/work/142235546

Keywords

Research priority areas of TU Dresden

Keywords

  • cytoskeletal motors, kinesin, microtubules, molecular motors, single-molecule force spectroscopy