Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, Mexico.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2430:93-104. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1983-4_6.
Intracellular transport by kinesin motors moving along their associated cytoskeletal filaments, microtubules, is essential to many biological processes. This active transport system can be reconstituted in vitro with the surface-adhered motors transporting the microtubules across a planar surface. In this geometry, the kinesin-microtubule system has been used to study active self-assembly, to power microdevices, and to perform analyte detection. Fundamental to these applications is the ability to characterize the interactions between the surface tethered motors and microtubules. Fluorescence Interference Contrast (FLIC) microscopy can illuminate the height of the microtubule above a surface, which, at sufficiently low surface densities of kinesin, also reveals the number, locations, and dynamics of the bound motors.
沿其相关细胞骨架丝（微管）运动的驱动蛋白马达的细胞内运输对许多生物过程至关重要。这种主动运输系统可以在体外通过表面附着的马达在平面上运输微管来重建。在这种几何形状中，驱动蛋白-微管系统已被用于研究主动自组装、为微器件提供动力和进行分析物检测。这些应用的基础是能够描述表面固定的马达与微管之间的相互作用。荧光干涉对比（FLIC）显微镜可以照亮微管在表面上方的高度，在驱动蛋白足够低的表面密度下，还可以揭示结合的马达的数量、位置和动态。
