Figure 6.

Time scales relevant for single-molecule studies. Fluorescence is ideally suited to study a variety of biophysical phenomena such as protein folding, conformational fluctuation, diffusion in the cytoplasm (Cy) or in the membrane (Mb), transport by molecular motors, protein interactions or enzymatic dynamics to name a few. The short lifetimes of fluorophores gives access to fast fluctuations due to its sensitivity to various non-radiative decay channels (FRET, ET), whereas slower evolving processes can be followed by correlation methods, intensity fluctuations or imaging. The time windows are approximate, each fluorophore, biomolecule or reaction having its own situation-dependent time scales