Farooq Shazia, Fijen Carel, Hohlbein Johannes
Laboratory of Biophysics, Wageningen UR, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Protoplasma. 2014 Mar;251(2):317-32. doi: 10.1007/s00709-013-0596-6. Epub 2013 Dec 28.
Single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) has emerged as a powerful tool for elucidating biological structure and mechanisms on the molecular level. Here, we focus on applications of smFRET to study interactions between DNA and enzymes such as DNA and RNA polymerases. SmFRET, used as a nanoscopic ruler, allows for the detection and precise characterisation of dynamic and rarely occurring events, which are otherwise averaged out in ensemble-based experiments. In this review, we will highlight some recent developments that provide new means of studying complex biological systems either by combining smFRET with force-based techniques or by using data obtained from smFRET experiments as constrains for computer-aided modelling.
单分子荧光共振能量转移（smFRET）已成为在分子水平上阐明生物结构和机制的强大工具。在这里，我们重点关注smFRET在研究DNA与诸如DNA和RNA聚合酶等酶之间相互作用方面的应用。作为一种纳米尺度的尺子，smFRET能够检测并精确表征动态且罕见发生的事件，而这些事件在基于整体的实验中会被平均掉。在这篇综述中，我们将重点介绍一些最新进展，这些进展通过将smFRET与基于力的技术相结合，或者利用从smFRET实验中获得的数据作为计算机辅助建模的约束条件，为研究复杂生物系统提供了新方法。
