Construction of a Supramolecular Förster Resonance Energy Transfer System and Its Application Based on the Interaction between Cy3-Labeled Melittin and Phosphocholine Encapsulated Quantum Dots

Due to possessing unique optical properties, semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) have been applied to construct bioconjugates. Using QDs as donors, the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) system can be developed and applied to biological imaging and sensing, and various construction strategies have been reported. To provide a new practicable method, we introduce a protocol with two routes to construct a supramolecular FRET system based on the high-affinity interaction between melittin and phosphocholine. Melittin exists with a random coil structure in aqueous environments but will adopt a bent helix when inserted into natural or artificial membranes. Such specific and high affinity protein-membrane interaction makes it possible to construct a QDs-based FRET system. The strategy applying protein-membrane interaction to construct a QDs-based FRET system can be applied to the investigation on the protein-membrane interaction through distance-depended FRET and further proteolysis of trypsin. Because of the existence of various protein-membrane interactions in real life, the system has the potential to be expanded to other related systems.