Nanomechanics of proteins, both folded and disordered

Abstract

Single-molecule techniques have recently provided a versatile tool for imaging and manipulating protein molecules one at a time, enabling us to address important biological questions in key areas of cell biology (e.g., cell adhesion and signaling, neurodegeneration) and protein science (e.g., protein folding, protein structure and stability, catalysis, protein evolution, conformational polymorphism, and amyloidogenesis). One of these techniques, single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) based on atomic force microscopy (AFM), combined with theoretical/computational approaches and protein engineering, has allowed unprecedented progress in characterizing and understanding at the molecular level the mechanical properties of biomolecules, particularly those of proteins, which has recently opened the new, exciting and fast-growing research field of protein nanomechanics. The aim of this review is to describe the principles of this methodology and to discuss the main achievements in this field, with special emphasis on its emerging application to the analysis of IDPs.