Long-Ranged and Short-Ranged Electrostatic Interaction Between Modified Silicon Surfaces and Recombinant Ferritin Molecules

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to probe the interaction between recombinant ferritin molecules immobilized on an AFM tip and surface-modified silicon substrates. Force-distance curve profiles demonstrated for the first time the controllability of long-ranged ferritin-substrate interactions and the amount of ferritin molecules adsorbed on a substrate by modifying the amino acid sequence in the N-terminal domains. In addition, we proposed that the decoration of substrate surface with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) also helped in controlling the ferritin-substrate interaction and the resulting adsorption amount. Our important finding is that the amount of ferritin adsorbed cannot be predicted simply from the zeta potentials of a ferritin molecule and substrate, and that the flexibility of the surface polar groups on a Si substrate is an important factor that governs the amount of the adsorption. Based on the analysis of force-distance profiles, we discuss what kind of force dominates the long-ranged and short-ranged interactions between ferritin and silicon substrates. These provide insights and lead to a deeper understanding of the factors to govern the adsorption of ferritins onto solid substrates.