Single-molecule FRET methods to study the dynamics of proteins at work

Feynman commented that “Everything that living things do can be understood in terms of the jiggling and wiggling of atoms”. Proteins can jiggle and wiggle large structural elements such as domains and subunits as part of their functional cycles. Single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) is an excellent tool to study conformational dynamics and decipher coordinated large-scale motions within proteins. smFRET methods introduced in recent years are geared toward understanding the time scales and amplitudes of function-related motions. This review discusses the methodology for obtaining and analyzing smFRET temporal trajectories that provide direct dynamic information on transitions between conformational states. It also introduces correlation methods that are useful for characterizing intramolecular motions. This arsenal of techniques has been used to study multiple molecular systems, from membrane proteins through molecular chaperones, and we examine some of these studies here. Recent exciting methodological novelties permit revealing very fast, submillisecond dynamics, whose relevance to protein function is yet to be fully grasped.