Timing a protein’s search along DNA
Tracking single molecules as they slide and hop along DNA, and a two-number model that predicts how long the search takes.
Code
SM-03
Year
2023
Status
Published
Modality
Single-molecule imaging
Funding
Fellowship
Team
Mei Tanaka, Ilse Maraval
Metric
38 s
Measured
median search time
The question
A nucleus holds about two metres of DNA. A protein has to find one short site in it. We wanted to watch that happen rather than infer it.
The measurement
We labelled individual proteins and tracked them at 100 frames per second. Each molecule slides for roughly forty base pairs, releases, and slides again somewhere else.
The model
A model with two parameters, slide length and hop rate, reproduces the search times we measure. Designs that slide further find their site sooner.
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