Steady-state fluorescence anisotropy dynamics

The physical dimensions and dynamics of calmodulin have also been investigated by tyrosine fluorescence. To learn about the internal mobility of calmodulin, Lambooy et al 1 and Steiner et al measured the steady-state fluorescence anisotropy of the tyrosine. Since the average correlation... 

The first decision to be made in designing an experiment to measure the motional properties of membrane lipids concerns the type of probe molecule. Too often, this choice is made from the point of view of convenience or tradition rather than suitability, although there is now a considerable range of suitable fluorophores from which to choose. The second consideration is the type of measurement to be made. The most detailed and complete motional information is obtained from a time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy measurement which is able to separate the structural or orientational aspects from the dynamic aspects of fluorophore motion. Steady-state anisotropy measurements, which are much easier to perform, provide a more limited physical parameter relating to both of these aspects. 

In the first section, steady-state spectroscopy is used to determine the stoichiometry and association constants of molecular ensembles, emphasize the changes due to light irradiation and provide information on the existence of photoinduced processes. Investigation of the dynamics of photoinduced processes, i.e. the determination of the rate constants for these processes, is best done with time-resolved techniques aiming at determining the temporal evolution of absorbance or fluorescence intensity (or anisotropy). The principles of these techniques (pulse fluorometry, phase-modulation fluorometry, transient absorption spectroscopy) will be described, and in each case pertinent examples of applications in the flelds of supramolecular photophysics and photochemistry will be presented. 

The appeal of fluorescence spectroscopy in the study of biomolecular systems lies in the characteristic time scale of the emission process, the sensitivity of the technique, and its ability to accommodate rapid and facile changes in the solvent milieu under conditions corresponding to thermodynamic equilibrium. The time scale of the emission process invites exploitation in two related manners. First, information on hydrodynamic aspects of the system is available from steady-state or time-resolved measurements. Second, detailed information on local dynamic processes within the biomolecular matrix may be derived. Information on hydrodynamic aspects of a macromolecular system may be used to study binding processes, that is, the association of small ligands with macromolecules or macromolecule-macromolecule interactions. In this chapter we focus on the latter applications of polarization or anisotropy data. We shall also try to clarify aspects of this area that our experience has shown to be occasionally misunderstood by initiates. 

Thus, the time-resolved measurement of such membrane probes contains information on the dynamics of the hindered probe rotation, often interpreted as the micro-viscosity, and about the hindrance of this rotation, usually interpreted as the static packing arrangement of the lipids or the so-called membrane order [136, 137]. Fluorescence polarisation studies in membranes, however, exhibit some major limitations the experimentally determined steady-state and time-re-solved anisotropies characterize the motional restrictions of the reporter molecule itself and give therefore only indirect information about the dye environment, with the consequence that, if the probe is bound covalently to the lipid (TMA-DPH), this attachment may dominate the recorded depolarisation behaviour. The membrane order parameters obtained from freely mobile probes like (DPH) result from a broad distribution of localisation within the hydrophobic interior, the detailed characterisation of which reveals inherent ambiguities [138]. 

From the point of view of optics applications, luminescent dyes (fluorescent and phosphorescent) were the organic compounds most frequently used for the preparation of doped sol-gel materials. The characteristics of these materials were studied extensively, from properties at the steady state (emission-excitation) to properties of the dynamic state (lifetimes), and to properties derived from anisotropy and/or energy transfer. Knowledge of the effects that the surface may have on the organic molecule is an important factor in understanding the spectroscopic properties of the entrapped molecule in its inorganic/organic environment. 

Some of these applications are complementary to the steady state methods discussed in section 8.2. Investigations of fluorescence lifetimes and of anisotropy or fluorescence quenching phenomena in the lifetime mode, that is during the decay after a single flash, require more elaborate instrumentation and theory than steady state investigations. On the whole applications rather than detail of methods are discussed here. The use of the lifetime method for the study of molecular rotation, domain movement and more local dynamic events can often, some experts say always, provide additional information even for those problems which can be investigated with considerable success by steady state measurements. 

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