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In order to use optical tweezers as a force measuring tool inside a viscoelastic medium such as the cytoplasm of a living cell, it is crucial to perform an exact force calibration within the complex medium. This is a nontrivial task, as many of the physical characteristics of the medium and probe, e.g., viscosity, elasticity, shape, and density, are often unknown. Here, we suggest how to calibrate single beam optical tweezers in a complex viscoelastic environment. At the same time, we determine viscoelastic characteristics such as friction retardation spectrum and elastic moduli of the medium. We apply and test a method suggested ͓M. Fischer and K. Berg-Sørensen, J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt. 9, S239 ͑2007͔͒, a method which combines passive and active measurements. The method is demonstrated in a simple viscous medium, water, and in a solution of entangled F-actin without cross-linkers.

fitted using the worm-like-chain (WLC) model. The statistical distributions obtained for contour length, persistence length, and number of pili per bacteria pole, were used to evaluate the mechanical properties of a single pilus and the biogenesis functions of different proteins (PilA, PilT) involved in its assembly and disassembly. Importantly, the persistence length value of ~1 mm measured in the present study, which is consistent with the curvature of the pili observed in our AFM images, is significantly lower than the value of 5 mm reported earlier by Skerker et al. (2). Our results shed new light on the role of mechanical forces that mediate bacteria-surface interactions and biofilm formation. References:

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