Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 10: Posters - Single Molecule Biophysics

BP 10.10: Poster

Monday, March 20, 2017, 17:30–19:30, P3

Ribonulceic acid induced fluorescence enhancement (RIFE) - Carbocynanines in the realm of RNA — Fabio Steffen, Roland K.O. Sigel, and •Richard Börner — Department of Chemistry, University Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

The popularity of carbocyanine dyes in single molecule spectroscopy of nucleic acids is unbroken (1,2). Studying the dynamics of large RNA constructs such as the group II intron in S. Cerevisiae on the single molecule level by means of FRET (3) have motivated a thorough photophysical characterization of the FRET pair Cy3/Cy5 in context of nucleic acids and RNA in particular (4). We observe that, apart from strand composition, structural features of the biomolecule play a fundamental role in RNA-dye recognition. In this respect, secondary structure motifs and its intrinsic flexibility sets RNA well apart from DNA and justifies the introduction of RNA-induced fluorescence enhancement (RIFE) (4) as a phenomenon akin to proteins (PIFE) (5) to describe a series of photophysical effects caused by structural motifs of RNA in vicinity of an isomerizable cyanine fluorophore. Besides quantitative studies of RIFE, we outline possible applications of ALEX-based RIFE-FRET studies with immobilized RNA molecules.

(1) Börner R, Kowerko D, Guisett-Miserach H, Schaffer MF, Sigel RKO. (2016) Coord .Chem. Rev. 327-328:123. (2) Levitus M, Ranjit S. (2011) Q. Rev. Biophys. 44:123. (3) Fiorini E, Börner R, Sigel RKO. (2015) Chimia. 69(4):207. (4) Steffen F, Sigel RKO, Börner R. (2016) Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 18(42):29045. (5) Lerner E, Ploetz E, Hohlbein J, Cordes T, Weiss S. (2016) J. Phys. Chem. B. 120(26):6401.