Dresden 2006 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 30: Poster Session I

AKB 30.35: Poster

Montag, 27. März 2006, 15:30–18:00, P1

Detection of single oxygen molecules by single-molecule fluorescence microscopy — •Wolfgang Erker, Sven Sdorra, and Thomas Basché — Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Mainz, Welderweg 11, 55099 Mainz, Germany

Hemocyanins, the respiratory proteins of arthropods, bind oxygen with high affinity and specifity. Bound oxygen produces two charge-transfer absorption bands in the UV and visible range. Covalent attachement of fluorophores converts the absorption signal into a fluorescence intensity [1]. This conversion is caused by FRET upon oxygen binding of the protein due to close proximity and spectral overlap. Consequently, fluorescence intensity of the attached labels tells whether the protein has oxygen bound or not. This signal can be detected at the single molecule level and enables the detection of single oxygen molecules [2]. The technique opens new perspectives for the development of small and sensitive oxygen sensors as well as for the investigation of cooperative oxygen binding in respiratory proteins.

[1] Erker W, Schoen A, Basché T, Decker H: Fluorescence labels as sensors for oxygen binding in arthropod hemocyanins. Biochem Biophys Res Com 2004, 324, 893-900

[2] Erker W, Sdorra S, Basché T: Detection of single oxygen molecules with fluorescence labelled hemocyanins. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 14532-14533