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Our manuscript entitled

“Quantitative Connection Between Ensemble Thermodynamics and Single-Molecule Kinetics: A Case Study Using Cryo-EM and smFRET Investigations of the Ribosome”
Authors: Kinz-Thompson, Colin; Sharma, Ajeet; Frank, Joachim; Gonzalez, Ruben; Chowdhury, Debashish

has just been accepted by The Journal of Physical Chemistry
Part: Part B: Biophysical Chemistry, Biomaterials, Liquids, and Soft Matter

This study was spurred by the fact that intermediate states of the pretranslocational complex of the ribosome were found by cryo-EM (Agirrezabala et al., PNAS 2012), with the help of maximum-likelihood based classification (ML3D, the precursor of RELION), BUT NOT by smFRET.

This discrepancy inspired the question of how short-lived these states must be to escape detection by a technique that has a time-resolution of 30 ms.

In this theoretical study Colin in Ruben’s lab and Ajit in Debashish’s lab developed equations for hypothetical multi-state scenarios, which enabled them to formulate boundary conditions for the experiment in question.

The approach is novel since it is the first time that multi-state observations by cryo-EM and observations of transitions between these states smFRET are put into the same quantitative framework.

–Joachim.

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