Single-molecule approach to molecular biology in living bacterial cells.
Recent developments on fluorescent proteins and microscopy techniques have allowed the probing of single molecules in a living bacterial cell with high specificity, millisecond time resolution, and nanometer spatial precision. Recording movies and analyzing dynamics of individual macromolecules have brought new insights into the mechanisms of many processes in molecular biology, such as DNA-protein interactions, gene regulation, transcription, translation, and replication, among others. Here we review the key methods of single-molecule detection and highlight numerous examples to illustrate how these experiments are contributing to the quantitative understanding of the fundamental processes in a living cell.
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. xie@chemistry.harvard.edu
X Sunney
XS
Xie
Paul J
PJ
Choi
Gene-Wei
GW
Li
Nam Ki
NK
Lee
Giuseppe
G
Lia
D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000502:physiology*; D015336:Molecular Probe Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping / Q000379:methods*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial