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Femtonewton Force Spectroscopy of Single Extended DNA Molecules

2000; American Physical Society; Volume: 84; Issue: 21 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.84.5014

1092-0145

Jens‐Christian Meiners, Stephen R. Quake,

Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies

We studied the thermal fluctuations of single DNA molecules with a novel optical tweezer based force spectroscopy technique. This technique combines femtonewton sensitivity with millisecond time resolution, surpassing the sensitivity of previous force measurements in aqueous solution with comparable bandwidth by a hundredfold. Our data resolve long-standing questions concerning internal hydrodynamics of the polymer and anisotropy in the molecular relaxation times and friction coefficients. The dynamics at high extension show interesting nonlinear behavior.