Raman spectroscopy of protein and nucleic acid assemblies

The Raman spectrum of a protein or nucleic acid consists of numerous discre te bands representing molecular normal modes of vibration and serves as a s ensitive and selective fingerprint of three-dimensional structure, intermol ecular interactions, and dynamics. Recent improvements in instrumentation, coupled with innovative approaches in experimental design, dramatically inc rease the power and scope of the method, particularly for investigations of large supramolecular assemblies. Applications are considered that involve the use of (a) time-resolved Raman spectroscopy to elucidate assembly pathw ays in icosahedral viruses, (b) polarized Raman microspectroscopy to determ ine detailed structural parameters in filamentous viruses, (c) ultraviolet- resonance Raman spectroscopy to probe selective DNA and protein residues in nucleoprotein complexes, and (d) difference Raman methods to understand me chanisms of protein/DNA recognition in gene regulatory and chromosomal comp lexes.