title: Functional Studies of DNA-Protein Interactions Using FRET Techniques.
abstract: Protein-DNA interactions underpin life and play key roles in all cellular processes and functions including DNA transcription, packaging, replication, and repair. Identifying and examining the nature of these interactions is therefore a crucial prerequisite to understand the molecular basis of how these fundamental processes take place. The application of fluorescence techniques and in particular fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to provide structural and kinetic information has experienced a stunning growth during the past decade. This has been mostly promoted by new advances in the preparation of dye-labeled nucleic acids and proteins and in optical sensitivity, where its implementation at the level of individual molecules has opened a new biophysical frontier. Nowadays, the application of FRET-based techniques to the analysis of protein-DNA interactions spans from the classical steady-state and time-resolved methods averaging over large ensembles to the analysis of distances, conformational changes, and enzymatic reactions in individual protein-DNA complexes. This chapter introduces the practical aspects of applying these methods for the study of protein-DNA interactions.
authors.affiliation: Faculté de Médecine et des Sciences de la Santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Blouin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Timothy D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Craggs
authors.affiliation: Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de L'Université, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada, J1K 2R1. Daniel.Lafontaine@USherbrooke.ca.
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Lafontaine
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK.
authors.forename: J Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Penedo
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D004247:DNA
keywords: Fluorescence spectroscopy; Förster resonance energy transfer; Protein-DNA interactions; Single-molecule detection; Time-resolved fluorescence