The fantastic single-molecule techniques

TL;DR

This review highlights the rapid development and broad application of single-molecule techniques in biology, introduces a new polysome profiling method, and discusses future integration of biochemical assays at the single-molecule level.

Contribution

It systematically summarizes advantages of single-molecule methods, proposes a novel polysome profiling technique, and envisions unifying biochemical assays using single-molecule microscopy.

Findings

Single-molecule techniques provide unique insights beyond traditional methods.

A new single-molecule polysome profiling method is demonstrated.

Future integration of assays could reduce costs and enhance applicability.

Abstract

In the past 40 years, single-molecule techniques have been rapidly developed and widely applied in numerous fields of biology researches, offering new insights that conventional biochemical assays cannot discover. In this review, to help fully appreciate the powerfulness of single-molecule methods, we systemically summarize the various advantages of performing biochemical assays at the single-molecule level. Inspired by these examples, we propose a new single-molecule polysome profiling technique, to demonstrate that this strategy is not limited to the few special "outliers". Finally, we point out a possibility in the future of unifying different biochemical assays on the platform of single-molecule microscopy, which will reduce the cost of instrumentation and inevitably promote the applicability and adoptability of new biochemical and biophysical methods.