Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6.1 (a) Schematic diagram of protein nanopore translocation experiment. (b) Illustration the
shapes of proteins and an unfolded protein translocation in a nanopore. (c) Several recorded
Laminin (L6274, Sigma-Aldrich) current blockage events in partially denatured condition (in
3 M Guanidine HCl at pH 7 and 1 M KCl). The insert is an illustrated structure of Laminin at its
native state (taken from http://www.sigmaaldrich.com ). (d) The Ipoint histogram or the instanta-
neous time distribution of blockade current
DI b over all events
ionic current caused by the translocating protein is a time dependent quantity,
DI b ( t ). Separating the translocation-relative variability in
DI b ( t ) from the noise-
related variability in
DI b ( t ) is an ongoing challenge. In this chapter, we consider the
mean current blockage amplitude
DI b and the dwell time t d while a protein molecule
stays in a nanopore.
6.1.4 Event Classification
Analysis of protein translocation current blockage events has been a challenging
task due to their complexity. For initial analysis of a data set, we usually first
generate the instantaneous time distribution of blockade current
DI b over all events
(Fig. 6.1d ), called I point histogram [ 16 ]. The I point histogram can help us to identify
possible peak values of
DI b that can be used to set a trigger line to classify events.
To classify events, a MATLAB based program has been developed. Using a trigger
line at approximately half the value of an interested peak, the MATLAB program
can select a group of events, calculate the mean blockage current
DI b and the time
duration t d of each event. When the current, I ( t ), crosses the trigger line the event
is considered to start, and the event stops when the current crosses the trigger line
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