Towards a nanoscale view of microbial surfaces using the atomic force microscopy.

In recent years, the atomic force microscope (AFM) has greatly improved our understanding of microbial surfaces. AFM imaging has proved to be a powerful tool for visualizing membrane proteins and live cells at high resolution and in physiological conditions. In addition, AFM force spectroscopy has enabled us to probe and map a variety of properties, including the elasticity of cell walls and cell surface molecules, and the unfolding forces of single proteins, and has allowed the detection and functional analysis of molecular recognition sites. These unique capabilities allow researchers to answer a number of questions that were inaccessible before, such as how does the surface architecture of microbes change as they grow or as they interact with an antibiotic, what are the conformational changes in single membrane proteins, and what are the molecular forces responsible for the interaction between host cells or specific molecules