Stretching single protein molecules: titin is a weird spring
Erickson, H.P.
Science 276(5315): 1090-1092
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9173540 Document Number: 470195
In this issue and in a recent issue of Nature, three groups of researchers report their measurements of the elastic forces generated during stretch and relaxation of single titin molecules. Titin is a giant protein that provides most of the elasticity of relaxed striated muscle, being able to stretch to at least four times its resting length. The researchers found a mixture of entropic springs, sawtooth waves, and hysteresis, which were unlike the properties of any familiar elastic material. They also revealed what happens when protein domains are unraveled by applied force. The study in Nature is by L. Tskhovrebova, J. Trinick, J. A. Sleep, and R. M. Simmons, and the studies in this issue are by M. S. Z. Kellermayer, S. B. Smith, H. L. Granzier, and C. Bustamante and M. Rief, M. Gautel, F. Oesterhelt, J. M. Fernandez, and H. E. Gaub.