Single Molecule Studies of Nucleic Acids and Their Associated Proteins

This book provides the basis for understanding the elastic properties of nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), the methods used to manipulate them (e.g. optical, magnetic and acoustic tweezers and traps), and how to observe their interactions with proteins (e.g. fluorescence microscopy, FCS, FRET, etc.). It then exemplifies the use of these various methods in the study of three families of DNA enzymes: polymerases, helicases and topoisomerases. The book aims not to be exhaustive, but rather to stimulate the imagination of readers in the application of these single molecule approaches to the study of DNA/RNA and their interactions.

David Bensimon, Research Director and Professor, LPS-ENS, PSL, CNRS and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, USA, Vincent Croquette, Research Director, LPS-ENS, PSL, CNRS, France,Jean-Francois Allemand, Professor, LPS-ENS, PSL, CNRS, France,Xavier Michalet, Researcher, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, USA,Terence Strick, Research Director and Principle Investigator, IBENS, PSL, CNRS, France

David Bensimon and Vincent Croquette have been co-leaders of a group at the LPS-ENS that has been studying single DNA molecules and their interactions with proteins since 1991. Jean-Francois Allemand, Terence Strick and Xavier Michalet have been their students and collaborators ever since. They have jointly developed magnetic traps and have been studying various aspects of single molecule DNA/protein transactions. Since joining the lab of Professor S. Weiss at UCLA , Xavier Michalet has been focusing on the use of fluorescent and spectroscopic methods to study single biomolecules.