Over the past few decades, single-molecule manipulation has been widely applied to the real-time analysis of biomolecular interactions. It has enabled researchers to decipher structure-function relationships for polymers, enzymes, and larger-scale molecular machines, in particular by harnessing force to probe both chemical and mechanical stabilities. Nucleic acids have played a central role in this effort because, in addition to their biological significance, they exhibit unique polymeric properties which have recast them as key components participating in numerous experimental designs. In this review, we introduce recent developments highlighting this dual nature of nucleic acids in biophysics, as objects of study but also as tools allowing novel approaches. More specifically, we present molecular scaffolds as an emerging concept and describe their use in single-molecule force spectroscopy. Aspects related to folding and noncovalent interactions will be presented in parallel to research in enzymology, with a focus on the acquisition of thermodynamic and kinetic data.

中文翻译：

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分子支架：DNA成为单分子研究的硬件时。

在过去的几十年中，单分子操作已广泛应用于生物分子相互作用的实时分析。它使研究人员能够破译聚合物，酶和大规模分子机器的结构-功能关系，特别是通过利用力来探测化学和机械稳定性。核酸在这项工作中发挥了核心作用，因为除具有生物学意义外，它们还具有独特的聚合特性，这些特性已将其重新铸造为参与众多实验设计的关键组分。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了最近的发展，突出了生物物理学中核酸的这种双重性质，既是研究的对象，也是允许采用新方法的工具。进一步来说，我们提出分子支架作为一个新兴的概念，并描述它们在单分子力谱学中的使用。与折叠和非共价相互作用有关的方面将与酶学研究并行提出，重点是热力学和动力学数据的获取。