Category: open access

S. Farooq and J. Hohlbein, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 17, 27862, 2015, [link], open access

The achievable time resolution of camera-based single-molecule detection is often limited by the frame rate of the camera. Especially in experiments utilizing single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) to probe conformational dynamics of biomolecules, increasing the frame rate by either pixel-binning or cropping the field of view decreases the number of molecules that can be monitored simultaneously. Here, we present a generalised excitation scheme termed stroboscopic alternating-laser excitation (sALEX) that significantly improves the time resolution without sacrificing highly parallelised detection in total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy. In addition, we adapt a technique known from diffusion-based confocal microscopy to analyse the complex shape of FRET efficiency histograms. We apply both sALEX and dynamic probability distribution analysis (dPDA) to resolve conformational dynamics of interconverting DNA hairpins in the millisecond time range.

G.W. Evans, J. Hohlbein, T. Craggs, L. Aigrain and A.N. Kapanidis, Nucleic Acids Research, 43, 5998-6008, 2015, [link], open access

DNA polymerases maintain genomic integrity by copying DNA with high fidelity. A conformational change important for fidelity is the motion of the polymerase fingers subdomain from an open to a closed conformation upon binding of a complementary
nucleotide. We previously employed intraprotein single-molecule FRET on diffusing molecules to observe fingers conformations in polymerase–DNA complexes. Here, we used the same FRET ruler on surface-immobilized complexes to observe fingers-opening and closing of individual polymerase molecules in real time. Our results revealed the presence of intrinsic dynamics in the binary complex, characterized by slow fingers-closing and fast fingers-opening. When binary complexes were incubated with increasing concentrations of complementary nucleotide, the fingers-closing rate increased, strongly supporting an induced-fit model for nucleotide recognition. Meanwhile, the opening
rate in ternary complexes with complementary nucleotide was 6 s^-1, much slower than either fingers closing or the rate-limiting step in the forward direction; this rate balance ensures that, after nucleotide binding and fingers-closing, nucleotide incorporation is overwhelmingly likely to occur. Our results for ternary complexes with a  non- complementary dNTP confirmed the presence of a state corresponding to partially closed fingers and suggested a radically different rate balance regarding fingers transitions, which allows polymerase to achieve high fidelity.

J. Hohlbein, L. Aigrain, T.D. Craggs, O. Bermek, O. Potapova, P. Shoolizadeh, N.D.F. Grindley, C.M. Joyce, A.N. Kapanidis, Nature Communications, 4,  2131, 2013, [link], open access

The fidelity of DNA polymerases depends on conformational changes that promote the rejection of incorrect nucleotides before phosphoryl transfer. Here, we combine single-molecule FRET with the use of DNA polymerase I and various fidelity mutants to highlight mechanisms by which active-site side chains influence the conformational transitions and free-energy landscape that underlie fidelity decisions in DNA synthesis. Ternary complexes of high fidelity derivatives with complementary dNTPs adopt mainly a fully closed conformation, whereas a conformation with a FRET value between those of open and closed is sparsely populated. This intermediate-FRET state, which we attribute to a partially closed conformation, is also predominant in ternary complexes with incorrect nucleotides and, strikingly, in most ternary complexes of low-fidelity derivatives for both correct and incorrect nucleotides. The mutator phenotype of the low-fidelity derivatives correlates well with reduced affinity for complementary dNTPs and highlights the partially closed conformation as a primary checkpoint for nucleotide selection.