Statistical physics and mesoscopic modeling to interpret tethered particle motion experiments

Abstract

Tethered particle motion experiments are versatile single-molecule techniques enabling one to address in vitro the molecular properties of DNA and its interactions with various partners involved in genetic regulations. These techniques provide raw data such as the tracked particle amplitude of movement, from which relevant information about DNA conformations or states must be recovered. Solving this inverse problem appeals to specific theoretical tools that have been designed in the two last decades, together with the data pre-processing procedures that ought to be implemented to avoid biases inherent to these experimental techniques. These statistical tools and models are reviewed in this paper.

Power Spectral Density Analysis of Nanowire-Anchored Fluctuating Microbead Reveals a Double Lorentzian Distribution

“…Thermal fluctuations of glass nanofibers and silicon nitride cantilevers have been used to characterize and calibrate such systems for single-molecule force measurements [7,8]. Brownian motion has also been used at a smaller scale in TPM (tethered particle motion) experiments to investigate the properties of linear macromolecules such as DNA [9][10][11]. In contrast, thermal noise represents the main disturbing and limiting factor in experiments that rely on highly sensitive mechanical and opto-mechanical systems.…”