Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 14: Molecular Motors

AKB 14.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 17:00–17:15, ZEU 255

Application of semiconductor nanocrystals to explore molecular motors — •Bert Nitzsche, Cecile Leduc, Jacob Kerssemakers, Felix Ruhnow, Yannis Kalaidzidis, and Stefan Diez — Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Pfotenhauerstr. 108, 01307 Dresden

Employing single molecule fluorescence microscopy and nanometer tracking, recent years have seen great progress in understanding cytoskeletal motors like kinesin or myosin. The used fluorescent labels were either fluorescent proteins or chemical dyes, which both exhibit only moderate brightness and suffer from photobleaching. As a result, temporal resolution and/or observation time can be very limited. Here we attached semiconductor nanocrystals - a new class of sophisticated fluorescent labels that is also called quantum dots (QDs) - to molecular motor systems. Due to their superior photophysical properties (spectacular brightness and high photostability) they have proven ideally suited to study biological (sub)systems such as motor proteins walking along cytoskeletal filaments. We demonstrate that we can combine high temporal and spatial resolution with long observation durations. Beyond this, we show new findings on the trajectories of cytoskeletal motors using QDs, which gives further insights into working mechanisms and functions of molecular motors.