Method to Quantify Local Force Distribution within Biomolecular Systems

The journal Nano Letters has recently published the article “Quantifying Local Molecular Tension Using Intercalated DNA Fluorescence”. We would like to congratulate all the authors!

By using optical tweezers coupled with fluorescence microscopy, Dr. King et al. (2018) studied the ability of cyanine intercalator dyes to quantify the molecular tension within biomolecular structures. They found that intercalators can be used in biomolecular systems in real-time to measure the tension locally and to determine how applied forces are partitioned. As an example, the authors demonstrated that stretched and entwined DNA structures can generate transient DNA-DNA interactions that mimic DNA bridges, by measuring the tension and local force distribution within the structures.

The Correlative Optical Tweezers-Fluorescence Microscopy technology used in this paper is made commercially available by LUMICKS. Read more about the C-Trap™ Optical Tweezers-Fluorescence Microscopy