News
Book Dr. E.J.G. Peterman and Prof. G.J.L. Wuite
Dr. E.J.G. Peterman and Prof. G.J.L. Wuite have published the book Single Molecule Analysis with publisher Springer.
Life scientists have been brought up for ages with the idea that life is driven, directed,
and shaped by biomolecules, working on their own or in concert. Only since a decade of
two to three, it has been possible to study the properties of molecules in ultimate isolation:
individual molecules. Technical breakthroughs in the field of sensitive fluorescence microscopy
have made it possible to observe single fluorescent molecules and measure their
properties. Other researchers have developed optical tweezers into a method to measure
the mechanic properties of single molecules. Around the same time, atomic force microscopy
has been developed, with a spatial resolution good enough to resolve single biomolecules.
Together, these techniques (and several other ones) have been applied more and
more to the study of biologically relevant molecules, such as DNA, DNA-binding proteins,
and motor proteins. These single-molecule approaches have led both not only to new views
into how biomolecules bring about biology, but also to novel insights in the way physical
and statistical principles underlie the behavior and mechanism of biomolecules. By
now, single-molecule tools are slowly becoming commonplace in molecular biophysics,
biochemistry, and molecular and cell biology. Thanks not only to their success, but also
to their accessibility: in the beginning, these tools were solely developed and custom-built
by (bio)physicists; now, commercial tools are becoming available. We foresee that this
trend will prevail, and single-molecule tools will play an even more prominent role in
molecular biology.
The aim of Single-Molecule Techniques: Methods and Protocols is to provide a broad
overview of single-molecule approaches applied to biomolecules, on the basis of clear and
concise protocols. In addition, we provide a solid introduction to the most widely used
single-molecule techniques. The idea is that these introductions, together with the protocols
provide enough basis for nonspecialists to make the step to single-molecule experiments.
The protocols contain a “Notes” section, in which the authors provide tips and
tricks, rooted in experience, that are often decisive between failure and success.
Our selection of topics for Single-Molecule Techniques: Methods and Protocols cannot
be all-inclusive, but we hope that we have covered the most important ones, which can
serve as a starting point for further exploration of single-molecule methods. The volume
opens with four chapters on optical tweezers. In Chapter 1, a general overview of the
method is provided. In the next chapters, protocols of applications of optical tweezers to
studies of DNA/RNA (Chapters 2 and 3) and motor proteins (Chapter 4) are presented.
The second part of the volume (Chapters 5–10) deals with single-molecule fluorescence
tools. First, a general overview of these techniques is provided (Chapter 5), followed by
protocols for fluorescent labeling of proteins (Chapter 6). In the following chapters, applications
to motor proteins (Chapter 7), structural proteins in living bacteria (Chapter 8) and
DNA (Chapter 9) are explained. In the last chapter of this part, the method fluorescence
correlation spectroscopy is presented in detail (Chapter 10). The next part of the volume
deals with atomic force microscopy (Chapters 11–14). Also this part opens with a general
overview of the approach (Chapter 11), followed by protocol chapters describing applications
to DNA and DNA-binding proteins (Chapter 12), protein folding and unfolding
(Chapter 13), and viruses (Chapter 14). In the remaining chapters of the book methods
that fall outside these three categories are discussed, including magnetic tweezers
(Chapter 15) and tethered particle motion (Chapter 16).
We have taken great care to provide a broad and thorough overview of the exciting and
still emerging field of single-molecule biology in this volume Single-Molecule Techniques:
Methods and Protocols. It is unavoidable that there is some overlap between the chapters.
Furthermore, it might well be that within a few years new techniques have emerged and
become important that are not discussed here. Nevertheless, we hope that the presented
protocols will be useful to many researchers, inspire them and help them to go single
molecule!
