Berlin 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYSM: Symposium Single Molecules

SYSM 1: Single molecules

SYSM 1.5: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 26. Februar 2008, 16:30–17:00, H 0105

From valleys to ridges: Exploring the dynamic energy landscape of single membrane proteins — •Daniel Müller — Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

Membrane proteins are involved in essential biological processes such as energy conversion, signal transduction, solute transport and secretion. Every biological process such as those involving membrane proteins is steered by molecular interactions. Molecular interactions guide the folding and stability of membrane proteins, determine their assembly, switch their functional states or mediate signal transduction. The sequential steps of molecular interactions driving these processes can be described by dynamic energy landscapes. The conceptual landscape allows to follow the complex reaction pathways of membrane proteins while its modifications describe why and how pathways are changed. Single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) detects, quantifies and locates interactions within and between membrane proteins. SMFS helps to determine how these interactions change with temperature, point mutations, oligomerization, and the functional states of membrane proteins. Applied in different modes, SMFS explores the co-existence and population of reaction pathways in the energy landscape of the protein and thus reveals detailed insights into local mechanisms determining its structure and function relationship. Here we review how SMFS extracts with high precision the defining parameters of an energy landscape such as the barrier position, the potential well width, reaction kinetics and roughness.