Issue 43, 2021

Tug-of-war: molecular dynamometers against living cells for analyzing sub-piconewton interaction of a specific protein with the cell membrane

Abstract

Protein–membrane interactions play important roles in signal transductions and functional regulation of membrane proteins. Here, we design a molecular dynamometer (MDM) for analyzing protein–membrane interaction on living cells. The MDM is constructed by assembling an artificial lipid bilayer and alkylated Cy3-DNA azide (azide-Cy3-Cx) on a silica bubble. After a functional aptamer is covalently anchored onto the corresponding target protein on a living cell through UV irradiation, azide-Cy3-Cx is conjugated with the aptamer through a click reaction to produce a “tug-of-war” between the MDM and the cell due to the buoyancy of the silica bubble. This induces the detachment of the protein from the cell membrane or the alkane terminal from the MDM enabling sub-piconewton embedding force measurement by changing the alkane chain length and simple fluorescence analysis. The successful analysis of embedding force variation of a protein on the cell membrane upon post-translational modifications demonstrates the practicability and expansibility of this method for mechanics-related research in biological systems.

Graphical abstract: Tug-of-war: molecular dynamometers against living cells for analyzing sub-piconewton interaction of a specific protein with the cell membrane

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
07 6 2021
Accepted
01 9 2021
First published
02 9 2021
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 14389-14395

Tug-of-war: molecular dynamometers against living cells for analyzing sub-piconewton interaction of a specific protein with the cell membrane

H. Liu, Y. Chen, J. Wang, Y. Yang and H. Ju, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 14389 DOI: 10.1039/D1SC03059K

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