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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Covalent Attachment of Single Molecules for AFM-based Force Spectroscopy
Published on: March 16, 2020
Goodness of fit testing in dynamic single-molecule force spectroscopy
Ana E Bergues-Pupo1, Melis Goktas2, Isabell Tunn2
1Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Department of Theory and Bio-Systems, 14424 Potsdam, Germany.
Abstract:
Dynamic single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) is a powerful method to characterize the mechanical stability of biomolecules. We address the problem that the standard manner of reporting the extracted energy landscape parameters does not reveal the intrinsic statistical errors associated with them. This problem becomes particularly relevant when SMFS is used to compare two or more different molecular systems. Here, we propose two methods that allow for a straightforward test of statistical significance. We illustrate the power of the methods by applying them to the experimental results obtained for three dimeric coiled coils of different lengths. Both methods are general and may be applied to any problem involving the fit of models with two correlated parameters.
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