2021/05/26 by Larnii Booth, Booth, Larnii S., Eloise V. Browne +11
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Optics (physics.optics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2105.12377
openalex publication_date 2021/05/26 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The structural dynamics of macromolecules is important for most\nmicrobiological processes, from protein folding to the origins of\nneurodegenerative disorders. Noninvasive measurements of these dynamics are\nhighly challenging. Recently, optical sensors have been shown to allow\nnoninvasive time-resolved measurements of the dynamic polarizability of\nsingle-molecules. Here we introduce a method to efficiently predict the dynamic\npolarizability from the atomic configuration of a given macromolecule. This\nprovides a means to connect the measured dynamic polarizability to the\nunderlying structure of the molecule, and therefore to connect temporal\nmeasurements to structural dynamics. To illustrate the methodology we calculate\nthe change in polarizability as a function of time based on conformations\nextracted from molecular dynamics simulations and using different conformations\nof motor proteins solved crystalographically. This allows us to quantify the\nmagnitude of the changes in polarizablity due to thermal and functional\nmotions.\n