The term "biological complexes" broadly encompasses particles as diverse as multisubunit enzymes, viral capsids, transport cages, molecular nets, ribosomes, nucleosomes, biological membrane components and amyloids. The complexes represent a broad range of stability and composition. Atomic force microscopy offers a wealth of structural and functional data about such assemblies. For this review, we choose to comment on the significance of AFM to study various aspects of biology of selected nonmembrane protein assemblies. Such particles are large enough to reveal many structural details under the AFM probe. Importantly, the specific advantages of the method allow for gathering dynamic information about their formation, stability or allosteric structural changes critical for their function. Some of them have already found their way to nanomedical or nanotechnological applications. Here we present examples of studies where the AFM provided pioneering information about the biology of complexes, and examples of studies where the simplicity of the method is used toward the development of potential diagnostic applications.

中文翻译：

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生物复合物的原子力显微镜：我们能学到什么？

术语“生物复合物”广泛地包括多种颗粒，如多亚基酶、病毒衣壳、运输笼、分子网、核糖体、核小体、生物膜成分和淀粉样蛋白。复合物代表了广泛的稳定性和组成。原子力显微镜提供了有关此类组件的大量结构和功能数据。在这篇综述中，我们选择评论 AFM 在研究选定非膜蛋白组件生物学各个方面的重要性。这样的粒子足够大，可以揭示 AFM 探针下的许多结构细节。重要的是，该方法的特定优势允许收集有关其形成、稳定性或对其功能至关重要的变构结构变化的动态信息。其中一些已经找到了纳米医学或纳米技术应用的方法。在这里，我们展示了 AFM 提供有关复合物生物学的开创性信息的研究示例，以及使用该方法的简单性开发潜在诊断应用的研究示例。