Investigating Single Molecule Adhesion by Atomic Force Spectroscopy

Summary

A protocol to couple a large variety of single molecules covalently onto an AFM tip is presented. Procedures and examples to determine the adhesion force and free energy of these molecules on solid supports and bio-interfaces are provided.

Abstract

Atomic force spectroscopy is an ideal tool to study molecules at surfaces and interfaces. An experimental protocol to couple a large variety of single molecules covalently onto an AFM tip is presented. At the same time the AFM tip is passivated to prevent unspecific interactions between the tip and the substrate, which is a prerequisite to study single molecules attached to the AFM tip. Analyses to determine the adhesion force, the adhesion length, and the free energy of these molecules on solid surfaces and bio-interfaces are shortly presented and external references for further reading are provided. Example molecules are the poly(amino acid) polytyrosine, the graft polymer PI-g-PS and the phospholipid POPE (1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine). These molecules are desorbed from different surfaces like CH₃-SAMs, hydrogen terminated diamond and supported lipid bilayers under various solvent conditions. Finally, the advantages of force spectroscopic single molecule experiments are discussed including means to decide if truly a single molecule has been studied in the experiment.

Introduction

Over the past 30 years, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has turned out to be a valuable imaging technique to study biological ^1,2 and synthetic ³ materials and surfaces since it provides molecular spatial resolution in all three dimensions and can be operated in various solvent environments. In addition, AFM-single molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) enables to measure forces ranging from the pN to µN regime and has given unprecedented insight for example into protein folding ^4,5, polymer physics ^6–8 , and single molecule-surface interaction^9–12.The rationa....

Protocol

NOTE: See Figure 2 for an overview of the process flow comprising the preparation, the data acquisition and data analysis steps.

1. Reagent Setup

NOTE: All chemicals must be handled with care, and thus a lab coat, gloves and eye protection should be used. All operations must be performed in a laboratory hood. In particular, special gloves should be worn in case of chloroform use.

1. Use chemicals with low water content such as dry chloroform rapidly and store dry but not longer than a week. Store both chemicals at -20 °C and under nitrogen or argon gas because APTES ((3-aminopropyl)triet....

Results

In the following, the results for the above described example molecules, namely the polymers poly(amino acid) polytyrosine, the graft polymer PI-g-PS and the phospholipid POPE, are presented. First for each example, experiment specific details for the data acquisition and data preparation are provided. Then, the exemplary results for experiments where these molecules were desorbed from different surfaces (CH₃-SAMs, hydrogen terminated diamond and lipid bilayers) are shown. Determination of the adhesio.......

Discussion

During the last decades, single molecule experiments have provided unprecedented insights into molecular mechanisms and turned out to be an invaluable approach in life science and beyond. To achieve good and meaningful statistics from SMFS experiments, ideally one and the same molecule is used over the whole course of the experiment. In contrast to experiments with ensembles of molecules, SMFS experiments are able to detect rare events and hidden molecular states. Another advantage of single molecule experiments is that .......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Materials
Hellmanex III alkaline liquid concentrate (detergent solution)	Hellma
RCA (ultrapure water, hydrogen peroxide (35%), ammonia (32%); 5:1:1(v/v/v))	Sigma
Vectabond reagent / APTES (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane	Vectorlabs
Dry acetone (< 50 ppm H2O)	Sigma
Dry chloroform (> 99.9%)	Sigma
Triethylamine	Sigma
Ultrapure water	Biochrom, Germany
Di-sodium tetraborate (> 99.5%)	Biochrom, Germany
Boric Acid	Biochrom, Germany
Monofunctional α-methoxy-ω-NHS PEG, 5 kDa, “methyl-PEG-NHS”	Rapp, Germany
Heterobifunctional α,ω-bis-NHS PEG, 6 kDa, “NHS-PEG-NHS”	Rapp, Germany
Heterobifunctional α-maleimidohexanoic- ω-NHS PEG, 5 kDa, “Mal-PEG-NHS”	Rapp, Germany
Probe molecule (polymer, lipid, etc.)
Equipment
Sufficient amount of glass crystallising dishes with spout (10 ml), glass Petri dishes (500 µl) and glass lids	VWR International GmbH, Germany
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Laboratory oven model UF30	Memmert, Germany
Temperature controlled sonicator	VWR International GmbH, Germany
Plasma system "Femto", 100 W	Diener, Germany
One separate glass syringe for each organic solvent	VWR International GmbH, Germany
Vortex mixer	VWR International GmbH, Germany
Microcentrifuge tubes (0.5 ml or 1.5 ml)	Eppendorf
Pipettes: 10-100 µl, 50-200 µl and 100-1,000 µl	Eppendorf
AFM with temperature controlled fluid cell (e.g. MFP-3D with BioHeater)	Asylulm Research, Santa Barbara
Soft SiN cantilevers cantilever, typically made from silicon nitride (SiN) (spring constant less than 100 pN/nm, e.g. MLCT)	Bruker AXS, Santa Barbara