The Single Molecule Imaging Approach to Membrane Protein Stoichiometry

Recent technical advances have enabled the imaging of single fluorescent molecules. The application of single molecule visualization techniques has opened up new avenues of experimentation in biology at the molecular level. In this article, we review the application of single fluorescent molecule visualization and analysis to an important problem, that of sub-unit stoichiometry in membrane proteins, with particular emphasis on our approach. Single fluorescent molecules, coupled to fluorescent proteins, are localized in the membranes of cells. The molecules are then exposed to continuous low-level excitation until their fluorescence emissions reach background levels. The high sensitivity of modern instrumentation has enabled direct observations of discrete step decreases in the fluorescence of single molecules, which represent the bleaching of single fluorophores. By counting the number of steps over a large number of single molecules, an average step count is determined, from which the stoichiometry is deduced using a binomial model. We examined the stoichiometry of a protein, prestin, that is central to mammalian hearing. We discuss how we prepared, identified and imaged single molecules of prestin. The methodological considerations behind our approach are described and compared to similar procedures in other laboratories.