Single-molecular methodologies for the physical biology of protein machines

Abstract

Physical biology is an interdisciplinary field that bridges biology with physical sciences and engineering. Single-molecule physical biology focuses on dynamics of individual biomolecules and complexes, aiming to answering basic questions about their functions and mechanisms. It takes advantages of physical methodologies to gain quantitative understanding of biological processes, often engaging precise physical measurements of reconstructed objects to avoid interference from unnecessary complications. In this review, we (i) briefly introduce concepts of single-molecule physical biology, (ii) describe extensively used single-molecule methodologies that have been developed to address key questions in two important objects of single-molecule physical biology, namely, nucleic acid-interacting proteins and membrane-interacting proteins, and (iii) show by a few successful examples how one may use single-molecule methods to deepen our understanding of protein machines.