Matsumoto, N.; Kobayashi, H.; Nishimura, T.; Ashizawa, H.; Kuwahara, T.; Honda, H.; Fujiwara, I. Frequency-Shift of Quartz Crystal Microbalance Depends on the Length of Actin Filaments. Preprints2023, 2023050114. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0114.v1
APA Style
Matsumoto, N., Kobayashi, H., Nishimura, T., Ashizawa, H., Kuwahara, T., Honda, H., & Fujiwara, I. (2023). Frequency-Shift of Quartz Crystal Microbalance Depends on the Length of Actin Filaments. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0114.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Matsumoto, N., Hajime Honda and Ikuko Fujiwara. 2023 "Frequency-Shift of Quartz Crystal Microbalance Depends on the Length of Actin Filaments" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0114.v1
Abstract
Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) is a well-known method to measure the mass of ligands bound to receptor-covered surfaces in various fields, ranging from materials science to biology. Actin molecule is essential in various cellular processes through its function of monomer-to-filament polymerization, forming a double-stranded filament with a 75 nm pitch. In this study, QCM was applied to measure the physical properties of actin, finding that the frequency shifted negatively when monomeric actin bound to the QCM surface, whereas the frequency shifted positively when filaments bound. Using fluorescence light microscopic observations, we have examined whether negative and positive frequency shifts originated from their length. In order to control this process, a severing protein, fragmin was used to change the length of actin filament. When the average length of filaments shortened, the magnitude of positive shift decreased in a concentration-dependent manner. However, shorter filaments showed a negative frequency shift depending on their concentration, showing that the weight derived from the loaded concentration and the function derived from actin polymerization dynamics are detectable. Interestingly, the transition from positive to negative occurred when the average length of actin was ~33 nm, or approximately equal to the half-pitch of filaments. Thus, actin filaments can serve as an excellent standard to measure the mechanical properties of biopolymers. Our results show that the QCM sensor could be both a "weight" and a "function" sensor of biomolecules in vitro.
Keywords
quartz crystal microbalance; actin; positive frequency shift; physical property; biomolecule
Subject
Engineering, Bioengineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
