Dynamic observation of 2686 bp DNA-BAL 31 nuclease interaction with single molecule level using high-speed atomic force microscopy

Conventional atomic force microscopy (AFM) can visualize not only the specific binding between a DNA molecule and an enzyme directly, but also the resulting conformation of DNA that reacted with the enzyme. However, it is difficult to Visualize the dynamic behavior of biomolecules by conventional AFM, which need a few minutes to image a sample, because the conformation of a biomolecule changes within seconds. In the present study, we successfully observed the dynamic behavior of the interaction between a DNA and an enzyme in a reaction buffer by high-speed AFM. Moreover. we Successfully visualized the digestion of the DNA by the enzyme and the motions of the enzyme on a DNA strand. The dynamic observation by high-speed AFM enabled us the quantitative evaluation of what. The movement speed of the enzyme along the DNA strand was about 23 nm/100 ms.