Mass-sensitive particle tracking to elucidate the membrane-associated MinDE reaction cycle

• DOI: 10.1038/s41592-021-01260-x
• Publication Date: 2021-10-04T17:38:04Z
• Authors: Tamara Heermann; Frederik Steiert; Beatrice Ramm; Nikolas Hundt; Petra Schwille
• Keywords: Biomolecule; Tracking (education)

Abstract In spite of their great importance in biology, methods providing access to spontaneous molecular interactions with and on biological membranes have been sparse. The recent advent mass photometry quantify distributions unlabeled biomolecules landing surfaces raised hopes that this approach could be transferred membranes. Here, by introducing a new interferometric scattering (iSCAT) image processing analysis strategy adapted diffusing particles, we enable mass-sensitive particle tracking (MSPT) single supported lipid bilayer. We applied the highly nonlinear reaction cycles underlying MinDE protein self-organization. MSPT allowed us determine stoichiometry turnover individual membrane-bound MinD/MinDE complexes size-dependent diffusion. This study demonstrates potential enhance our quantitative understanding membrane-associated systems.