A Bright Light to Reveal Mobility: Single Quantum Dot Tracking Reveals Membrane Dynamics and Cellular Mechanisms

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry letters Vol. 4; no. 17; pp. 2858 - 2866
• Main Authors: Chang, Jerry C, Rosenthal, Sandra J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 05.09.2013
• Subjects: fluorescent microscopy; quantum dot; single molecule detection; trafficking; membrane dynamics
• ISSN: 1948-7185; 1948-7185
• DOI: 10.1021/jz401071g

This Perspective describes recent progress in single quantum dot techniques, with an emphasis on their applications in exploring membrane dynamics and cellular mechanisms. In these cases, conventional population measurements, such as fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, yield only a mean value on an ensemble or bulk collection of molecules, where the behavior of individual proteins and vehicles is missing. In recent years, the single quantum dot imaging approach has been introduced as a subcategory of single molecule fluorescent techniques to reveal single protein/vehicle dynamics in real time. One of the major advantages of using single quantum dots is the high signal-to-noise ratio originating from their unique photophysical properties such as extraordinarily high molar extinction coefficients and large effective Stokes shifts. In addition to a brief overview on the principle of single quantum dot imaging techniques, we highlight recent discoveries and discuss future directions in the field.