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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 84 » Issue 21
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 5014–5017 (2000)

Femtonewton Force Spectroscopy of Single Extended DNA Molecules

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Jens-Christian Meiners and Stephen R. Quake
Department of Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125

Received 27 December 1999; published in the issue dated 22 May 2000

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.

© 2000 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5014
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.5014
PACS:
87.15.Ya, 05.40.Jc, 36.20.Ey
 
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