Gold nanoparticle microsecond tracking with atomic-level localization precision achieved

Gold nanoparticles have been used as an optical probe of high-localization precision, high-speed single-molecule tracking of protein molecular motors. With newly developed dark-field microscopy, researchers in Institute for Molecular Science, Japan, have achieved gold nanoparticle tracking with atomic-level angstrom localization precision and microsecond time resolution. Detailed motion of kinesin, a dimeric linear molecular motor, has been precisely captured at 10 microsecond time resolution, consistent with unidirectional 'rotation' of two heads of kinesin during linear motion.