Recent advances in Nanometal Surface Energy Transfer (NSET) theory provide versatility in the fields of cellular biology and biochemistry where flexibility in assay design is essential. Gold nanoparticle-based energy transfer assays utilized in biology often require a variety nanoparticle sizes to achieve increased surface payload or better cellular uptake, which has shown to be influenced by nanoparticle size. New size-dependent NSET calculations eliminate the one-dimensional �on-to-off� premise of energy transfer probes in biology, and provide intensity-based distal measurements between an organic dye fluorophore and a larger gold nanoparticle quencher. Here we demonstrate the versatility of NSET in biochemical assays by monitoring the G-quadruplex folding of dye-labeled human telomere sequences on various sizes of gold nanoparticles. Appropriate quenching by the gold nanoparticles based upon size-dependent NSET theory for each telomere's folding is observed, in that larger gold sizes reduce the photoluminescent of the dye and shorten the lifetime. Correlation of distal measurements in the folded G-quadruplex conformation on multiple gold nanoparticle sizes confirms that the nanoparticles do not influence the native conformational behavior of nucleic acid biomolecules appended to the surface. These functional NSET designs also provide insight into rational probe designs for other conformation-based biological events.

Utilizing size-dependent NSET as an optical probe for human telomere conformations

248th National Meeting (2014)

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