Department of Physics and Soft Matter Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States.
Third Institute of Physics-Biophysics, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
Nano Lett. 2021 Oct 13;21(19):8244-8249. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c02672. Epub 2021 Sep 14.
Graphene-induced energy transfer (GIET) was recently introduced for sub-nanometric axial localization of fluorescent molecules. GIET relies on near-field energy transfer from an optically excited fluorophore to a single sheet of graphene. Recently, we demonstrated its potential by determining the distance between two leaflets of supported lipid bilayers. Here, we use GIET imaging for mapping quasi-stationary states of the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes before and during adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis. We trigger the ATP synthesis state by activating mitochondria with precursor molecules. Our results demonstrate that the inner membrane approaches the outer membrane, while the outer membrane does not show any measurable change in average axial position upon activation. The inter-membrane space is reduced by ∼2 nm. This direct experimental observation of the subtle dynamics of mitochondrial membranes and the change in intermembrane distance upon activation is relevant for our understanding of mitochondrial function.
石墨烯诱导能量转移（GIET）最近被引入用于荧光分子的亚纳米轴向定位。GIET 依赖于从光激发的荧光团到单层石墨烯的近场能量转移。最近，我们通过确定支撑脂质双层的两个小叶之间的距离证明了其潜力。在这里，我们使用 GIET 成像来绘制在三磷酸腺苷（ATP）合成之前和期间，内外线粒体膜的准静态状态。我们通过用前体分子激活线粒体来触发 ATP 合成状态。我们的结果表明，内膜接近外膜，而在外膜被激活时，其轴向平均位置没有任何可测量的变化。膜间空间减小了约 2nm。这种对线粒体膜微妙动力学的直接实验观察以及在激活时膜间距离的变化对于我们理解线粒体功能是相关的。
