Toward Dynamic Structural Biology: Two Decades of Single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer

Overview

Journal Science

Specialty Science

Date 2018 Jan 20

PMID 29348210

Citations 190

Authors

Eitan Lerner

Thorben Cordes

Antonino Ingargiola

Yazan Alhadid

SangYoon Chung

Xavier Michalet

Shimon Weiss

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Classical structural biology can only provide static snapshots of biomacromolecules. Single-molecule Förster 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.

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