Abstract:
Cell membranes are complicated multicomponent structures, related to many basic cellular processes, such as substance transporting, energy conversion, signal transduction, mechanosensing, cell adhesion and so on. However, cell membranes have long been difficult to study at a single-molecule level due to their complex and dynamic properties. During the last decades, biophysical imaging techniques, such as atomic force microscopy and super-resolution fluorescent microscopy, have been developed to study biological structures with unprecedented resolution, enabling researchers to analyze the composition and distribution of membrane proteins and monitor their specific functions at single cell/molecule level. In this review, we highlight the structure and functions of cell membranes based on up-to-date biophysical techniques. Additionally, we describe the recent advances in force-based detecting technology, which allow insight into dynamic events and quantitativelymonitoring kinetic parameters for trans-membrane transporting in living cells.
摘要:
细胞膜是复杂的多组分结构,与许多基本的细胞过程有关,如物质运输,能量转换,信号转导,机械传感,细胞粘附等。然而,由于细胞膜的复杂和动态特性,长期以来很难在单分子水平上进行研究。在过去的几十年里,生物物理成像技术,如原子力显微镜和超分辨率荧光显微镜,已经发展到以前所未有的分辨率研究生物结构,使研究人员能够分析膜蛋白的组成和分布,并在单细胞/分子水平监测其特定功能。在这次审查中,我们基于最新的生物物理技术强调细胞膜的结构和功能。此外,我们描述了基于力的检测技术的最新进展,它可以深入了解动态事件并定量监测活细胞中跨膜运输的动力学参数。