title: Single-molecule FRET reveals nucleotide-driven conformational changes in molecular machines and their link to RNA unwinding and DNA supercoiling.
abstract: Many complex cellular processes in the cell are catalysed at the expense of ATP hydrolysis. The enzymes involved bind and hydrolyse ATP and couple ATP hydrolysis to the catalysed process via cycles of nucleotide-driven conformational changes. In this review, I illustrate how smFRET (single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer) can define the underlying conformational changes that drive ATP-dependent molecular machines. The first example is a DEAD-box helicase that alternates between two different conformations in its catalytic cycle during RNA unwinding, and the second is DNA gyrase, a topoisomerase that undergoes a set of concerted conformational changes during negative supercoiling of DNA.
authors.affiliation: University of Basel, Biozentrum, Klingelbergstrasse 70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland. dagmar.klostermeier@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Klostermeier
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D004278:DNA, Superhelical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation / Q000187:drug effects; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004278:DNA, Superhelical; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009711:Nucleotides; D012313:RNA; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; C401542:yxiN protein, Bacillus subtilis; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases