RESOLUTION OF FLUORESCENCE-SPECTRA ONTO Q UENCHER ACCESSIBILITY-ASSOCIATED COMPONENTS

The novel algorithm QUENCH is described which resolves fluorescence sp ectra onto two components differing in the accessibility (the Stern - Volmer constants) for small quenchers. In contrast to the known algori thms, the QUENCH first estimates Stern - Volmer constants using the to tal arrow of spectra measured at different quencher concentrations and , then, calculates contributions of each component into the emission i ntensities at every wavelength value. The component spectra, resolved with QUENCH from the tryptophan fluorescence of ribosomal S7 protein, were very similar to the log-normal components revealed using the SIMS program [16]. The QUENCH algorithm may be of use in the component ana lysis of fluorescence spectra of any system containing fluorophores wi th differing accessibilities for quenchers.