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Updated: Aug 9, 2026
Use of Dual Optical Tweezers and Microfluidics for Single-Molecule Studies
Published on: November 18, 2022
Binding of TmHU to single dsDNA as observed by optical tweezers
1Faculty of Biosciences, Pharmacy and Psychology, University of Leipzig, Brüderstrasse 34, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Abstract:
Optical tweezers are employed to study the action of the histone-like protein from Thermotoga maritima (TmHU) on DNA at a single molecule level. Binding and disruption of TmHU to and from DNA are found to take place in discrete steps of 4-5 nm length and a net binding enthalpy of about 16kBT. This is in reasonable agreement with a microscopic model that estimates the extension of the binding sites of the protein and evaluates the energetics mainly for bending of the DNA in the course of interaction.
