Zhuang Xiaowei
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct. 2005;34:399-414. doi: 10.1146/annurev.biophys.34.040204.144641.
The development of single-molecule detection and manipulation has allowed us to monitor the behavior of individual biological molecules and molecular complexes in real time. This approach significantly expands our capability to characterize complex dynamics of biological processes, allowing transient intermediate states and parallel kinetic pathways to be directly observed. Exploring this capability to elucidate complex dynamics, recent single-molecule experiments on RNA folding and catalysis have improved our understanding of the folding energy landscape of RNA and allowed us to better dissect complex RNA catalytic reactions, including translation by the ribosome.
单分子检测与操控技术的发展使我们能够实时监测单个生物分子及分子复合物的行为。这种方法极大地拓展了我们表征生物过程复杂动力学的能力，使得瞬态中间状态和平行动力学途径能够被直接观测到。为探索这种阐明复杂动力学的能力，近期关于RNA折叠与催化的单分子实验增进了我们对RNA折叠能量景观的理解，并使我们能够更好地剖析复杂的RNA催化反应，包括核糖体介导的翻译过程。
