Methods of physical labels--a combined approach to the study of microstructure and dynamics in biological systems

The physical principles of several new approaches to the investigation of biological and model systems are discussed, including versions of the spin label method based on relaxation measurements, and also the methods of triplet, Mössbauer, electron-scattering and radical-pair labels and probes. It is shown that all these methods make it possible to investigate molecular mobility of the medium with the correlation frequencies tau c-1 = 10(-3) -10(11) s-1, to measure the rate constants of collisions Ktr = 10(3) -10(10) M-1 s-1, to measure the distance between centers up to 100 A and finally, to evaluate the immersion depths of paramagnetic and chromophore centers in matrices up to 40 A. The combined approach is demonstrated with examples from studies of the structure of nitrogenase, the reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria and sarcoplasmic reticulum membranes and from studies of the molecular dynamics of proteins and membranes.