{"doi":"10.1073/pnas.1704937114","title":"Mechanically switching single-molecule fluorescence of GFP by unfolding and refolding","abstract":"<jats:title>Significance</jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>Green fluorescent protein (GFP) is widely used as a tag to watch otherwise invisible proteins and as a sensor of its local chemical environment. Since GFP can form many partially folded states, it is critical to know how these structural changes affect its signature fluorescence. We use optical tweezers to force single molecules of GFP into folding and unfolding intermediate states and simultaneously probe single-molecule fluorescence from each state. It was found that GFP fluorescence requires complete structural integrity; none of the unfolding or refolding intermediates were observed to fluoresce, but fluorescence could be recovered by complete refolding. This feature was exploited to reversibly, mechanically switch GFP between on and off fluorescence states.</jats:p>","journal":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","year":2017,"id":26169,"datarank":2.0177439841919287,"base_score":4.174387269895637,"endowment":4.174387269895637,"self_citation_contribution":0.6261580904843456,"citation_network_contribution":1.3915858937075831,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6261580904843456,"citer_contribution":1.3915858937075831,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":64,"citer_count":62,"citers_with_citation_signal":50,"citers_with_endowment":50,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":152008,"name":"Matthias Rief","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":152007,"name":"Ziad Ganim","orcid":"0000-0002-8275-269X","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":4.174387269895637,"endowment":4.174387269895637,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"29073015","pmcid":"PMC5651744","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2761998960","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","grant_id":"SFB 863","title":null},{"funder_name":"Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft","grant_id":"unidentified","title":"unidentified"}],"total_grants":2,"fwci":4.0253,"citation_percentile":0.94534785,"influential_citations":2,"citation_trend":[{"year":2018,"count":4},{"year":2019,"count":8},{"year":2020,"count":10},{"year":2021,"count":8},{"year":2022,"count":9},{"year":2023,"count":10},{"year":2024,"count":6},{"year":2025,"count":8},{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":"http://www.pnas.org/site/misc/userlicense.xhtml","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/114/42/11052.full.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/114/42/11052.full.pdf","host_type":"BRONZE"},{"url":"https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/114/42/11052.full.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"http://www.pnas.org/syndication/doi/10.1073/pnas.1704937114","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1704937114","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704937114","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29073015","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"http://europepmc.org/pmc/articles/PMC5651744","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/5651744","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704937114","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications","Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques","Nanofabrication and Lithography Techniques","Medicine","Chemistry","Physics","0301 basic medicine","0303 health sciences","03 medical and health sciences","Fluorescence","Green Fluorescent Proteins","Models, Chemical","Optical Tweezers","Protein Refolding","Protein Unfolding"],"mesh_terms":["Fluorescence","Models, Chemical","Green Fluorescent Proteins","Optical Tweezers","Protein Unfolding","Protein Refolding"],"keywords":["Green fluorescent protein","Fluorescence","Molecule","Biophysics","Chemistry","Biology","Biochemistry","Physics","Optics","Organic chemistry","Gene","Protein folding","Optical tweezers","Fluorescent Protein","Mechanoswitch","Models, Chemical","Green Fluorescent Proteins","Protein Refolding","Protein Unfolding"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life in Land"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-08T12:14:42.624903Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}