Published in

National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 31(104), p. 12646-12650, 2007

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0610673104

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Fueling protein–DNA interactions inside porous nanocontainers

Journal article published in 2007 by Ibrahim Cisse, Burak Okumus, Chirlmin Joo, Taekjip Ha ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Vesicle encapsulation offers a biologically relevant environment for many soluble proteins and nucleic acids and an optimal immobilization medium for single-molecule fluorescence assays. Furthermore, the confinement of biomolecules within small volumes opens up new avenues to unique experimental configurations. Nevertheless, the vesicles' impermeability, even toward ions and other small molecules such as ATP, hinders more general applications. We therefore developed methods to induce pores into vesicles. Porous vesicles were then used to modulate the interaction between Escherichia coli RecA proteins and ssDNA by changing the extravesicular nucleotides. Repetitive binding and dissociation of the same RecA filament on the DNA was observed with a rebinding rate two orders of magnitude greater than in the absence of confinement, suggesting a previously unreported nucleation pathway for RecA filament. This method provides a biofriendly and simple alternative to surface tethering that is ideal for the study of transient and weakly interacting biological complexes.