Applications of New Biophysical Techniques to Supramolecular Structure of ATP Synthase

Key words: 
• new biophysical technique /
• ATP synthase /
• supramolecular structure

Abstract: The developing modern physical techniques offer a series of abundant and effective methods to study ATP synthase in structure and function. Firstly we stressed on the dialectic relationship between physical techniques and the improvement of science in history, and introduced a lot of physical techniques in common use in protein researches such as mass spectroscopy， nuclear magnetic resonance， synchronization Xray diffraction， infrared spectroscopy and ultraviolet spectroscopy, and then reviewed their application status in quo to ATP synthase. Secondly we paid our attention to the burgeoning unconventionally instruments, i.e., the atomic force microscope and the fluorescence resonance energy transform (FRET) which have attracted the professional attention， and introduced latest application and researches’ achievements. Compared the development of the techniques in recent years， we have set forth the shortcoming and excellence of all kinds of equipments introduced. And it was ended with the conclusion that it is necessary to manage the possible instruments effectively and sufficient for the personalities， and given out the optimum research routes which emphasized on the new techniques and novel methods, i.e., the atomic force microscope and FRET.