title: Pre-unfolding resonant oscillations of single green fluorescent protein molecules.
abstract: Fluorescence spectroscopy of a green fluorescent protein mutant at single-molecule resolution has revealed a remarkable oscillatory behavior that can also be driven by applied fields. We show that immediately before unfolding, several periodic oscillations among the chemical substates of the protein chromophore occur. We also show that applied alternating electric or acoustic fields, when tuned to the protein characteristic frequencies, give rise to strong resonance effects.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Advanced BioSpectroscopy, Physics Department, and Centro Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM), University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano I-20126, Italy. baldini@mib.infn.it
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baldini
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cannone
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chirico
mesh_terms: D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D005453:Fluorescence; D005782:Gels; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D019791:Guanidine; D009154:Mutation; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D058428:Silica Gel; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D013016:Sound; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D005782:Gels; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins; D058428:Silica Gel; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; D019791:Guanidine