Direct observation of the growth and shrinkage of microtubules by single molecule Förster resonance energy transfer†
Abstract
Single molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) has been applied, for the first time, to monitor the growth (polymerization) and the shrinkage (depolymerization) of the dynamic microtubules, employing EGFP (attached to Mal3) as a donor and alexa-568 bound to tubulin as an acceptor.