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Correction for 'Enzyme-responsive reporter molecules for selective localization and fluorescence imaging of pathogenic biofilms' by Junxin Aw et al., Chem. Commun., 2017, 53, 3330-3333.

Pathogenic bacteria and their biofilm formation are responsible for a broad spectrum of microbial infections. A novel enzyme-responsive reporter molecule (ERM-1), which can specifically recognize AmpC β-lactamase (Bla) in drug resistant bacteria, has been developed to enable the selective localization of biofilms.

We report evidence for fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) of gas-phase ions under ultra high vacuum conditions (10(-9) mbar) inside a mass spectrometer as well as under ambient conditions inside an electrospray plume. Two different FRET pairs based on carboxyrhodamine 6G (donor) and ATTO590 or Bodipy TR (acceptor) dyes were examined and their gas-phase optical properties were studied. Our measurements indicate a different behavior for the two FRET pairs, which can be attributed to their different conformations in the gas phase. Upon desolvation via electrospray ionization, one of the FRET pairs undergoes a conformational change that leads to disappearance of FRET. This study shows the promise of FRET to obtain a direct correlation between solution and gas-phase structures.