ATPase is one of biology’s most important biological motors, and now it’s starring in its very own molecule-scale action movie.
According to sciencebase’s David Bradley:
Researchers in Japan have used high-speed atomic force microscopy (AFM) to shoot an action movie of the biological molecular motor ATPase…The enzyme has two rotating components, but until now only X-ray crystallography and similar “still” imaging techniques had been used to visualise how it works. The microscopy work provides more evidence of how changes in conformation of the subunits of the enzyme generate the required rotation to produce ATP.
You can read more about ATPase, and how movies like this one can provide scientists with a much clearer view of the inner workings of nature’s molecular machines, over at the Royal Society of Chemistry
Video from the Royal Society of Chemistry via sciencebase
