RESONANCE ENERGY-TRANSFER - METHODS AND APPLICATIONS

Resonance energy transfer is widely used in studies of biomolecular st ructure and dynamics. It provides information about distances on the o rder of 10 to 100 angstrom and is thus suitable for investigating spat ial relationships of interest in biochemistry. The information availab le from energy transfer studies has been enhanced by the advances in i nstrumental methods and procedures of data analysis related to fluores cence decay studies. Some practical aspects of the method are reviewed . These include sample preparation, Forster type distance determinatio n, methods of detecting energy transfer and calculating transfer effic iency, time-resolved measurements, and data analysis. Applications of resonance energy transfer, including qualitative measurements as well as microscopy, average distance estimation, and distance distribution analysis, are surveyed. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.