Optical Tweezers: Methods and Applications

With contributions from some of the best in the field, this compendium presents important historical and current developments of optical tweezers in a range of scientific areas, from the manipulation of bacteria to the treatment of DNA.

Optical tweezers, the early yearsE.F. Nichols and G.F. Hull, A Preliminary Communication on the Pressure of Heat and Light Radiation. Phys. Rev. 13, 307-320 (1901).A. Ashkin, Acceleration and Trapping of Particles by Radiation Pressure. Phys. Rev. Lett. 24, 156-159 (1970).A. Ashkin and J.M. Dziedzic, Optical Levitation by Radiation Pressure. Appl. Phys. Lett. 19, 283-285 (1971).A. Ashkin and J.M. Dziedzic, Optical Levitation of Liquid Drops by Radiation Pressure. Science. 187: 1073-1075 (1975).A. Ashkin and J.M. Dziedzic, Observation of Resonances in Radiation Pressure on Dielectric Spheres. Phys. Rev. Lett. 38, 1351-1354 (1977).A. Ashkin, J.M. Dziedzic, J.E. Bjorkholm, and S. Chu, Observation of a Single-Beam Gradient Force Optical Trap for Dielectric Particles. Opt. Lett. 11, 288-290 (1986).A. Ashkin and J.M. Dziedzic, Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Viruses and Bacteria. Science. 235, 1517-1520 (1987).A. Ashkin, J.M. Dziedzic, and T. Yamane, Optical Trapping and Manipulation of Single Cells Using Infrared-Laser Beams. Nature. 330, 769-771 (1987).Applications in biologyJ. Sleep, D. Wilson, R. Simmons, and W. Gratzer, Elasticity of the red cell membrane and its relation to hemolytic disorders: An optical tweezers study. Biophys. J., 77, 3085-3095 (1999).M. Edidin, S.C. Kuo, and M.P. Sheetz, Lateral movements of membrane-glycoproteins restricted by dynamic cytoplasmic barriers. Science, 254,1379-1382 (1991).S.M. Block, D.F. Blair, and H.C. Berg, Compliance of bacterial flagella measured with optical tweezers. Nature, 338, 514-518 (1989).Y. Sowa, A.D. Rowe, M.C. Leake, T. Yakushi, M. Homma, A. Ishijima, and R.M. Berry, Direct observation of steps in rotation of the bacterial flagellar motor. Nature, 437, 916-919 (2005).K. Svoboda, C.F. Schmidt, B.J. Schnapp, and S.M. Block, Direct observation of kinesin stepping by optical trapping interferometry. Nature, 365,721-727 (1993).J.E. Molloy, J.E. Burns, J. Kendrick-Jones, R.T. Tregear, and D.C.S. White, Movement and force produced by a single myosin head. Nature, 378, 209-212 (1995).C. Veigel, F. Wang, M.L. Bartoo, J.R. Sellers, and J.E. Molloy, The gated gait of the processive molecular motor, myosin v. Nature Cell Biology, 4, 59-65 (2002).G.M. Skinner, C.G. Baumann, D.M. Quinn, J.E. Molloy, and J.G. Hoggett, Promoter binding, initiation, and elongation by bacteriophage T7 RNA polymerase, J. Biol. Chem., 279, 3239-3244 (2004).C.G. Baumann, S.B. Smith, V.A. Bloomfield, and C. Bustamante, Ionic effects on the elasticity of single DNA molecules. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 94, 6185-6190. (1997).L. Tskhovrebova, J. Trinick, J.A. Sleep, and R.M. Simmons, Elasticity and unfolding of single molecules of the giant muscle protein titin. Nature, 387, 308-312 (1997).Measuring forces and motionK.C. Neuman and S.M. Block, Optical trapping. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 75, 2787-2809 (2004).R.M. Simmons, J.T. Finer, S. Chu, and J.A. Spudich, Quantitative measurements of force and displacement using an optical trap. Biophys. J., 70, 1813-1822 (1996).C. Veigel, M.L. Bartoo, D.C.S. White, J.C. Sparrow, and J.E. Molloy, The stiffness of rabbit skeletal actomyosin cross-bridges determined with an optical tweezers transducer. Biophys. J., 75, 1424-1438 (1998).K.M. Herbert, A. La Porta, B.J. Wong, R.A. Mooney, K.C. Neuman, R. Landick, and S.M. Block, Sequence-resolved detection of pausing by single RNA polymerase molecules. Cell 125 1083-1094 (2006).J.E. Molloy, J.E. Burns, J.C. Sparrow, R.T. Tregear, J. Kendrick-Jones, and D.C. White, Single-molecule mechanics of heavy meromyosin and S1 interacting with rabbit or drosophila actins using optical tweezers. Biophys J, 68, 298S-303S; 303S-305S (1995).N.J. Carter and R.A. Cross, Mechanics of the kinesin step. Nature, 435, 308-312 (2005).M.W. Allersma, F. Gittes, M.J. deCastro, R.J. Stewart, and C.F. Schmidt, Two-dimensional tracking of ncd motility by back focal plane interferometry. Biophys. J., 74, 1074-1085 (1998).K. Visscher, M.J. Schnitzer, and S.M. B