Simulation atomic force microscopy for atomic reconstruction of biomolecular structures from resolution-limited experimental images

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Mar 16;18(3):e1009970. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009970. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can visualize the dynamics of single biomolecules under near-physiological conditions. However, the scanning tip probes only the molecular surface with limited resolution, missing details required to fully deduce functional mechanisms from imaging alone. To overcome such drawbacks, we developed a computational framework to reconstruct 3D atomistic structures from AFM surface scans, employing simulation AFM and automatized fitting to experimental images. We provide applications to AFM images ranging from single molecular machines, protein filaments, to large-scale assemblies of 2D protein lattices, and demonstrate how the obtained full atomistic information advances the molecular understanding beyond the original topographic AFM image. We show that simulation AFM further allows for quantitative molecular feature assignment within measured AFM topographies. Implementation of the developed methods into the versatile interactive interface of the BioAFMviewer software, freely available at www.bioafmviewer.com, presents the opportunity for the broad Bio-AFM community to employ the enormous amount of existing structural and modeling data to facilitate the interpretation of resolution-limited AFM images.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force / methods
  • Nanotechnology*
  • Proteins* / chemistry
  • Software

Substances

  • Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, https://www.mext.go.jp), Japan, through the World Premier International Research Center (WPI) Initiative (AM, CMF, HF), and by Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (https://www.jsps.go.jp) Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research 21K03483 (HF). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.