Microsecond Resolution of Single-Molecule Rotation Catalyzed by Molecular Motors

Single-molecule measurements of rotation catalyzed by the F₁ -ATPase or the F_o F₁ ATP synthase have provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms of the F₁ and F_o molecular motors. We recently developed a method to record ATPase-driven rotation of F₁ or F_o F₁ in a manner that solves several technical limitations of earlier approaches that were significantly hampered by time and angular resolution, and restricted the duration of data collection. With our approach it is possible to collect data for hours and obtain statistically significant quantities of data on each molecule examined with a time resolution of up to 5 μs at unprecedented signal-to-noise.