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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Use of Dual Optical Tweezers and Microfluidics for Single-Molecule Studies
Published on: November 18, 2022
Approaches for stoichiometry and distance determination of nanometer bio-complex by dual-channel single molecule
Hui Zhang1, Dan Shu, Mark Browne
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine/College of Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 3125 Eden Ave., Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA.
Abstract:
A dual-channel imaging system with single fluorophore sensitivity was assembled in this lab. Inclusion of an integrated laser combiner was introduced to facilitate simultaneous dual-channel imaging. The imaging system has been applied to study the structure, stoichiometry, distance and function of the phi29 DNA packaging motor. Approaches including single molecule photobleaching, single molecule FRET and binomial distribution quantification were carried out to clarify the stoichiometry and distance of pRNA on the biologically active packaging motor. The results were statistically analyzed to access the copy number of pRNA, and the distance constraint was used to verify the 3D structure of the computer model of phi29 DNA packaging motor.
