Tapping mode AFM study on the surface dynamics of a single glucose oxidase molecule on a Au(1 1 1) surface in water with implication for a surface-induced unfolding pathway

We have investigated a surface-induced unfolding dynamics of a single glucose oxidase (GO) molecule on Au(1 1 1) in air-saturated water, using tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TMAFM). We followed the unfolding process by measuring the maximum height of a well-isolated GO molecule on a terrace near a step-edge of the surface as a function of contact time. We find three linear portions with two intersections in a power-law fit to the selected values of the observed heights. The kinetic TMAFM result implies that there exist at least two distinct dynamic regimes in the unfolding