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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 50: Posters - Cell Adhesion

BP 50.4: Poster

Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 17:00–19:00, Poster C

Size, kinetics and free energy of clusters formed by ultraweak bonds between glycolipids — •Hannes Witt¹, Marieelen Oelkers¹, Filip Savic¹, Shahid I. Awan², Daniel B. Werz², Burkhard Geil², and Andreas Janshoff² — ¹Georg-August-Universität Göttingen — ²Technische Universität Braunschweig

Many biological processes, like cell motility or immunological recognition, rely on transient binding, which demands the use of weak, non-covalent bonds with fast binding and unbinding kinetics, characteristics ideally met by carbohydrate-carbohydrate-interactions (CCI). Here we employ atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the trans-interaction of the trisaccharide Lewis X bound to a fluid lipid membrane. We show how even this ultra-weak interaction leads to the formation of binding clusters resulting in biologically relevant adhesion forces and describe this process with a simple diffusion-reaction-scheme, which allows us to access the bond number, reaction kinetics and free binding energies.