TY  - JOUR
AU  - Terterov, Ivan
AU  - Nettels, Daniel
AU  - Lastiza-Male, Tanya
AU  - Bartels, Kim
AU  - Loew, Christian
AU  - Vancraenenbroeck, Renee
AU  - Carmel, Itay
AU  - Rosenblum, Gabriel
AU  - Hofmann, Hagen
TI  - Model-free photon analysis of diffusion-based single-molecule FRET experiments
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  - 16
IS  - 1
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - [London]
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - PUBDB-2025-02190
SP  - 5537
PY  - 2025
AB  - Photon-by-photon analysis tools for diffusion-based single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer (smFRET) experiments often describe protein dynamics with Markov models. However, FRET efficiencies are only projections of the conformational space such that the measured dynamics can appear non-Markovian. Model-free methods to quantify FRET efficiency fluctuations would be desirable in this case. Here, we present such an approach. We determine FRET efficiency correlation functions free of artifacts from the finite length of photon trajectories or the diffusion of molecules through the confocal volume. We show that these functions capture the dynamics of proteins from nano- to milliseconds both in simulation and experiment, which provides a rigorous validation of current model-based analysis approaches. 
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:40595536
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-60764-8
UR  - https://bib-pubdb1.desy.de/record/632562
ER  -