Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.394, 312-318, 2013
The movement of actin-myosin biomolecular linear motor under AC electric fields: An experimental study
The role of actin-myosin as a biomolecular linear motor is considered a transport system at nanoscale because of their size, efficiency and functionality. To utilize the ability to transport, it is essential to control the random movement of actin filaments (F-actin) on myosin coated substrate. In the presence of an alternating current (AC) electric field, the direction of F-actin movement is regulated by electro-orientadon torque and, as a result, its movement is perpendicularly toward the electrode edges. Our data confirm such aligned movement is proportional to the strength of applied electric field. Interestingly, the aligned movement is found frequency-dependent and the electrothermal effect is observed by means of the velocity measurement of aligned F-actin movement. The findings in this study may provide constructive information for manipulating actin-myosin nanotransport system to build functional nanodevices in future work. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Dielectrophoresis;Electro-orientation;Electrothermal effect;AC electric field;Myosin;Actin filament