Atomically resolved imaging of the conformations and adsorption geometries of individual β-cyclodextrins with non-contact AFM

Márkó Grabarics, Benjamín Mallada, Shayan Edalatmanesh, Alejandro Jiménez-Martín, Martin Pykal, Martin Ondráček, Petra Kührová, Weston B. Struwe, Pavel Banáš (), Stephan Rauschenbach (), Pavel Jelínek () and Bruno de la Torre ()
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Márkó Grabarics: University of Oxford
Benjamín Mallada: Czech Academy of Sciences
Shayan Edalatmanesh: Czech Academy of Sciences
Alejandro Jiménez-Martín: Czech Academy of Sciences
Martin Pykal: Palacký University Olomouc
Martin Ondráček: Czech Academy of Sciences
Petra Kührová: Palacký University Olomouc
Weston B. Struwe: University of Oxford
Pavel Banáš: Palacký University Olomouc
Stephan Rauschenbach: University of Oxford
Pavel Jelínek: Czech Academy of Sciences
Bruno de la Torre: Palacký University Olomouc

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Glycans, consisting of covalently linked sugar units, are a major class of biopolymers essential to all known living organisms. To better understand their biological functions and further applications in fields from biomedicine to materials science, detailed knowledge of their structure is essential. However, due to the extraordinary complexity and conformational flexibility of glycans, state-of-the-art glycan analysis methods often fail to provide structural information with atomic precision. Here, we combine electrospray deposition in ultra-high vacuum with non-contact atomic force microscopy and theoretical calculations to unravel the structure of β-cyclodextrin, a cyclic glucose oligomer, with atomic-scale detail. Our results, established on the single-molecule level, reveal the different adsorption geometries and conformations of β-cyclodextrin. The position of individual hydroxy groups and the location of the stabilizing intramolecular H-bonds are deduced from atomically resolved images, enabling the unambiguous assignment of the molecular structure and demonstrating the potential of the method for glycan analysis.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53555-0

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