FRET utilizes chromophores, which is the part of the molecule that produces color through absorption and transmittance. The donor chromophore, which is in an excited state, will transfer its energy non-radiatively to the acceptor chromophore. At a certain wavelength, the acceptor chromophore will absorb in the same region that the donor chromophore will emit fluorescence. When the two chromophores are far enough apart, you will only see the donor chromophore lit up. When they get closer together, the donor will give it's energy to the acceptor chromophore, allowing the acceptor to light up and the donor to not. The donor will only transfer the energy to the acceptor when they are in close proximity to each other. Since this energy transfer only occurs at certain distances, there are a variety of uses for this technique.
FRET can be used to examine intermembrane exchange of lipid components, vesicle-vesicle interactions, and membrane fusion, as these all involve changes in distances. It has been used to look at viruses and how they fuse to cells. Interactions between membrane proteins and the components of the membrane in cells has been analyzed with FRET. This has the ability to observe cellular communication and how information might be transferred. FRET is commonly used to measure distances of proteins and other components.
Here are some images that might help you understand it better:
Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/nprot/journal/v8/n2/images_article/nprot.2012.147-F1.jpg
Retrieved from: http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/techniques/fluorescence/fret/images/fretintrofigure8.jpg
Here is the link for the article:
s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/43538328/1-s2.0-0958166995800166-main.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ56TQJRTWSMTNPEA&Expires=1476495950&Signature=95QxZdbyRnxa0ZnKOL6%2F3dXdxFA%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DS2.0_0958166995800166_main.pdf
I find that the images don't help that much. How does this work?
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