Single‐Molecule Pulling: Phenomenology and Interpretation

Single-molecule pulling techniques have emerged as versatile tools for probing the noncovalent forces holding together the secondary and tertiary structure of macromolecules. They also constitute a way to study at the single-molecule level processes that are familiar from our macroscopic thermodynamic experience. In this Chapter, we summarize the essential phenomenology that is typically observed during single-molecule pulling, provide a general statistical mechanical framework for the interpretation of the equilibrium force spectroscopy and illustrate how to simulate single-molecule pulling experiments using molecular dynamics. Published in Nano and Cell Mechanics: Fundamentals and Frontiers, edited by H.D. Espinosa and G. Bao (Wiley, Microsystem and Nanotechnology Series, 2013), Chap. 14, pages 359–388.