Unraveling multi-state molecular dynamics in single-molecule FRET experiments -- Part II: Quantitative analysis of multi-state kinetic networks

Single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) is ideally suited to resolve the dynamics of biomolecules. A significant challenge to date is capturing and quantifying the exchange between multiple conformational states, mainly when these dynamics occur on the sub-millisecond timescale. Many methods for the quantitative analysis are challenged if more than two states are involved, and the appropriate choice of the number of states in the kinetic network is difficult. An additional complication arises if dynamically active molecules coexist with solely static molecules in similar conformational states. To address these problems, we developed an integrative analysis framework that combines the information from FRET-lines, time-correlated single photon counting, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. While individually, these methodologies provide ambiguous results for quantitatively characterize the dynamics in complex kinetic networks, the global analysis enables accurate determination of the number of states, their kinetic connectivity, and the transition rate constants. To challenge the potential of smFRET to study multi-state kinetic networks, we benchmark the framework using synthetic data of three-state systems with different kinetic connectivity and interconversion rates.

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