Toward dynamic structural biology: Two decades of single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer

Lerner, Eitan; Cordes, Thorben; Ingargiola, Antonino; Alhadid, Yazan; Chung, SangYoon; Michalet, Xavier and Weiss, Shimon (2018): Toward dynamic structural biology: Two decades of single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer. In: Science, Vol. 359, No. 6373, eaan1133

Abstract

Classical structural biology can only provide static snapshots of biomacromolecules. Single-molecule Forster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) paved the way for studying dynamics in macromolecular structures under biologically relevant conditions. Since its first implementation in 1996, smFRET experiments have confirmed previously hypothesized mechanisms and provided new insights into many fundamental biological processes, such as DNA maintenance and repair, transcription, translation, and membrane transport. We review 22 years of contributions of smFRET to our understanding of basic mechanisms in biochemistry, molecular biology, and structural biology. Additionally, building on current state-of-the-art implementations of smFRET, we highlight possible future directions for smFRET in applications such as biosensing, high-throughput screening, and molecular diagnostics.

• Item Type: Journal article
• EU Funded Grant Agreement Number: 638536
• EU Projects: Horizon 2020 > ERC Grants > ERC Starting Grant > ERC Grant 638536: SM-IMPORT - Substrate import at work: single-molecule studies of ABC transporters
• Faculties: Biology > Department Biology I
• Subjects: 500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• Language: English