ABSTRACT
Since 1994, optical traps have been used to probe the detailed mechanism by which myosins convert chemical energy of the cell into directed motion. In this chapter, we discuss the optical trap transducer and its role in single-molecule studies of these molecular motors. We focus on how this tool has developed as the questions of the myosin field have changed. Though myosin studies go back to the first half of the twentieth century, the last ten years have been witness to exciting advances in our understanding of the fundamental acto-myosin interaction. Optical traps played no small role in this process, and we attempt to present here a synopsis of how this tool has been utilized.
