Investigating the thermodynamics of small biosystems with optical tweezers

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how optical tweezers can be used to study thermodynamics in small biological systems, providing insights into free energy landscapes and fluctuation theorems at the single-molecule level.

Contribution

It introduces experimental methods using optical tweezers to explore equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamics in biological molecules, including verification of Crooks' fluctuation theorem.

Findings

Mapping of macromolecule free energy landscapes

Experimental verification of Crooks' fluctuation theorem

Insights into mesoscopic thermodynamics

Abstract

We present two examples of how single-molecule experimental techniques applied to biological systems can give insight into problems within the scope of equilibrium and nonequilibrium mesoscopic thermodynamics. The first example is the mapping of the free energy landscape of a macromolecule, the second the experimental verification of Crooks' fluctuation theorem. In both cases the experimental setup comprises optical tweezers and DNA molecules.