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Atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy of native membrane proteins

Nature Protocols volume 2, pages 2191–2197 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Membrane proteins comprise 30% of the proteome of higher organisms. They mediate energy conversion, signal transduction, solute transport and secretion. Their native environment is a bilayer in a physiological buffer solution, hence their structure and function are preferably assessed in this environment. The surface structure of single membrane proteins can be determined in buffer solutions by atomic force microscopy (AFM) at a lateral resolution of less than 1 nm and a vertical resolution of 0.1–0.2 nm. Moreover, single proteins can be directly addressed, stuck to the AFM stylus and subsequently unfolded, revealing the molecular interactions of the protein studied. The examples discussed here illustrate the power of AFM in the structural analysis of membrane proteins in a native environment.

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Figure 1: High-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging.
Figure 2: High-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) of purple membrane.
Figure 3: High-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) topographs of native membrane proteins.
Figure 4: Unfolding single membrane proteins by single-molecule force spectroscopy.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Volkswagenstiftung, European Union, the Free State of Saxony, the Swiss National Research Foundation, the M.E. Müller Foundation, the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) 'Structural Biology', the NCCR 'Nanoscale Science' and the NANOMOT project of the EU (grant NEST2004 PathSYS29084).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Biotechnology, University of Technology, Tatzberg 47-51, Dresden, Germany

    Daniel J Müller

  2. M.E. Müller Institute for Structural Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, Basel, 4056, Switzerland

    Andreas Engel

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Correspondence to Andreas Engel.

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Müller, D., Engel, A. Atomic force microscopy and spectroscopy of native membrane proteins. Nat Protoc 2, 2191–2197 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2007.309

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