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A representative cross-section of elastic biomolecules is covered in this volume, which combines seventeen contributions from leading research groups. State-of-the-art molecular mechanics experiments are described dealing with the elasticity of DNA and nucleoprotein complexes, titin and titin-like proteins in muscle, as well as proteins of the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix.
The book speaks particularly to cell biologists, biophysicists, or bioengineers, and to senior researchers and graduate students alike, who are interested in recent advances in single-molecule technology (optical tweezers technique, atomic force microscopy), EM imaging, and computer simulation approaches to study nanobiomechanics. The findings discussed here have redefined our view of the role mechanical signals play in cellular functions and have greatly helped improve our understanding of biological elasticity in general.

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DNA, Chromatin and Chromosomes.- Mechanics and imaging of single DNA molecules.- Stretching and imaging single DNA molecules and chromatin.- Optical tweezers stretching of chromatin.- Micromechanical studies of mitotic chromosomes.- Elastic Invertebrate Muscle Proteins.- Varieties of elastic protein in invertebrate muscles.- Single-molecule measurement of elasticity of Serine-, Glutamate- and Lysine-Rich repeats of invertebrate connectin reveals that its elasticity is caused entropically by random coil structure.- The Elastic Vertebrate Muscle Protein Titin.- Titin as a modular spring: emerging mechanisms for elasticity control by titin in cardiac physiology and pathophysiology.- Species variations in cDNA sequence and exon splicing patterns in the extensible I-band region of cardiac titin: relation to passive tension.- Cardiac titin: molecular basis of elasticity and cellular contribution to elastic and viscous stiffness components in myocardium.- Stretching and visualizing titin molecules: combining structure, dynamics and mechanics.- Unfolding of titin domains studied by molecular dynamics simulations.- Cytoskeletal Proteins.- Mechanical response of single filamin A (ABP-280) molecules and its role in the actin cytoskeleton.- Mechanics of vimentin intermediate filaments.- Extracellular Matrix Proteins.- Mechanics of elastin: molecular mechanism of biological elasticity and its relationship to contraction.- Molecular basis for the extensibility of elastin.- Stretching fibronectin.- Fibrillin-rich microfibrils: elastic biopolymers of the extracellular matrix.

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