Elastic Response, Buckling, and Instability of Microtubules under Radial Indentation
Schaap, Iwan A. T., Carrasco, Carolina, De Pablo, Pedro J., MacKintosh, Frederick C., Schmidt, Christoph F.
We tested the mechanical properties of single microtubules by lateral indentation with the tip of an atomic force microscope. Indentations up to ∼3.6 nm, i.e., 15% of the microtubule diameter,...
Manipulation of the mechanical properties of a virus by protein engineering
Carrasco, Carolina, Castellanos, Milagros, De Pablo, Pedro J., Mateu, Mauricio G.
In a previous study, we showed that the DNA molecule within a spherical virus (the minute virus of mice) plays an architectural role by anisotropically increasing the mechanical stiffness of the...