Real-time imaging of structure and dynamics of transmembrane biomolecules by FRET-induced single-molecule fluorescence attenuation

Dongfei Ma; Wenqing Hou; Chenguang Yang; Shuxin Hu; Weijing Han; Ying Lu

doi:10.52601/bpr.2021.210030

Real-time imaging of structure and dynamics of transmembrane biomolecules by FRET-induced single-molecule fluorescence attenuation

Biophys Rep. 2021 Dec 31;7(6):490-503. doi: 10.52601/bpr.2021.210030.

Authors

Dongfei Ma^{1

2}, Wenqing Hou^{2

3}, Chenguang Yang^{2

3}, Shuxin Hu², Weijing Han¹, Ying Lu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, China.
² Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

Abstract

Tracking the transmembrane topology and conformational dynamics of membrane proteins is key to understand their functions. It is however challenging to monitor position changes of individual proteins in cell membranes with high sensitivity and high resolution. We review on three single-molecule fluorescence imaging methods - SIFA, LipoFRET and QueenFRET - recently developed in our lab for studying the dynamics of membrane proteins. They can be applied, progressively, to investigate membrane proteins in solid-supported lipid bilayers, artificial liposome membranes and live-cell plasma membranes. The techniques take advantage of the energy transfer from a fluorophore to a cloud of quenchers and are able to extract in real time positions and position changes of a single fluorophore-labeled protein in the direction normal to the membrane surface. The methods have sub-nanometer precision and have proved powerful to investigate biomolecules interacting with bio-membranes.

Keywords: Dynamics of membrane proteins; Single-molecule fluorescence imaging.