Toward imaging the dynamic interaction between actin and myosin using a wet-cell C-mode near-field optical microscope

This paper describes the implementation of a wet-cell collection-mode near-field optical microscope that has been constructed with the long term goal of imaging the myosin conformational change as it interacts with actin. The bioassay used to prepare the samples involved lysing muscle fibers to exact and myosin molecules which were fixed to a mica slide. Next, actin filaments were exacted and deposited in the region of the myosin. The wet-cell allows the addition of water containing ATP and the necessary ions to activate the myosin biomolecules. The near-field optical microscope was shown to able to resolve features of the size of the actin and myosin biomolecules.