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Cutting the forest to see a single tree?

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The development of single-molecule tools has significantly impacted the way we think about biochemical processes. Watching a single protein in action allows us to observe kinetic details and rare subpopulations that are hidden in ensemble-averaging techniques. I will discuss here the pros and cons of the single-molecule approach in studying ligand binding in macromolecular systems and how these techniques can be applied to characterize the behavior of large multicomponent biochemical systems.

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Figure 1: Fluctuating turnover rates and binding affinities of enzymes.
Figure 2: Fractional binding in single-molecule and bulk-phase experiments.

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Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges funding from the US National Institutes of Health, the US National Science Foundation and the Searle Scholars Program. The author thanks J. Loparo for a critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Antoine M. van Oijen is at Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, SGM204A, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. antoine_van_oijen@hms.harvard.edu,

    Antoine M van Oijen

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van Oijen, A. Cutting the forest to see a single tree?. Nat Chem Biol 4, 440–443 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0808-440

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