title: An optical trap combined with three-color FRET.
abstract: We developed a hybrid technique combining optical tweezers and single-molecule three-color fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). In demonstrative experiments, we observed the force-sensitive correlated motion of three helical arms of a Holliday junction and identified the independent unfolding/folding dynamics of two DNA hairpins of the same length. With 3 times the number of observable elements of single-molecule FRET, this new instrument will enable the measurement of the complex, multidimensional effects of mechanical forces in various biomolecular systems, such as RNA and proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Department of Biophysics and Chemical Biology, and National Center for Creative Research Initiatives, Seoul National University , Seoul 151-747, Korea.
authors.forename: Sanghwa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sungchul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hohng
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D055095:Optics and Photonics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA