Antia Meher, Islas Leon D, Boness David A, Baneyx Gretchen, Vogel Viola
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
Biomaterials. 2006 Feb;27(5):679-90. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2005.06.014. Epub 2005 Aug 10.
The conformation of the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin plays a critical role in regulating cell function, including cell adhesion and migration. While average conformations of large ensembles of adhesion proteins have been previously measured, cells may sensitively respond to conformational outliers. We therefore applied both single molecule imaging and spectroscopy techniques to map a range of conformational states of individual fibronectin molecules adsorbed to glass, as well as to measure their conformational fluctuations in time. Single-step photobleaching experiments confirmed single molecule sensitivity. Single molecule spectra showed fluctuations in the peak wavelength, both over a spatial ensemble of molecules and in a single molecule over time, most likely indicating the different conformational states fibronectin can assume upon surface adsorption. Single-pair fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) revealed that a fraction of fibronectin molecules existed in conformations that allowed for energy transfer between the labeled cysteine residues of the two dimeric arms folded upon each other, and that fluctuations occurred in the FRET efficiency. Fluorescence polarization experiments identified two possible sources of FRET fluctuations: changes in fluorophore orientation and conformational fluctuations of fibronectin over a time scale of seconds.
细胞外基质蛋白纤连蛋白的构象在调节细胞功能(包括细胞黏附和迁移)中起着关键作用。虽然此前已测量过大量黏附蛋白的平均构象,但细胞可能会对构象异常值做出敏感反应。因此,我们应用单分子成像和光谱技术来绘制吸附在玻璃上的单个纤连蛋白分子的一系列构象状态图谱,并测量其构象随时间的波动。单步光漂白实验证实了单分子灵敏度。单分子光谱显示,在分子的空间集合以及单个分子随时间的变化中,峰值波长都存在波动,这很可能表明纤连蛋白在表面吸附时可以呈现不同的构象状态。单对荧光共振能量转移(FRET)表明,一部分纤连蛋白分子以允许两个相互折叠的二聚体臂上标记的半胱氨酸残基之间进行能量转移的构象存在,并且FRET效率存在波动。荧光偏振实验确定了FRET波动的两个可能来源:荧光团方向的变化以及纤连蛋白在秒级时间尺度上的构象波动。