Studying IDP stability and dynamics by fast relaxation imaging in living cells

Fast relaxation imaging (FReI) temperature-tunes living cells and applies small temperature jumps to them, to monitor biomolecular stability and kinetics in vivo. The folding or aggregation state of a target protein is monitored by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). Intrinsically disordered proteins near the structured-unstructured boundary are particularly sensitive to their environment. We describe, using the IDP α-synuclein as an example, how FReI can be used to measure IDP stability and folding inside the cell.