Polarization profile, water

The influence of a cut-off relative to the full treatment of electrostatic interactions by Ewald summation on various water parameters has been investigated by Feller et al. [33], These authors performed simulations of pure water and water-DPPC bilayers and also compared the effect of different truncation methods. In the simulations with Ewald summation, the water polarization profiles were in excellent agreement with experimental values from determinations of the hydration force, while they were significantly higher when a cut-off was employed. In addition, the calculated electrostatic potential profile across the bilayer was in much better agreement with experimental values in case of infinite cut-off. However, the values of surface tension and diffusion coefficient of pure water deviated from experiment in the simulations with Ewald summation, pointing out the necessity to reparameterize the water model for use with Ewald summation. 

A polar (neutral) water molecule librates in the intermolecuiar potential with hatlike profile... 

Abstract EPR spectroscopy of site-directed spin labeled membrane proteins is at present a common and valuable biophysical tool to study structural details and conformational transitions under conditions relevant to function. EPR is considered a complementary approach to X-ray crystallography and NMR because it provides detailed information on (1) side chain dynamics with an exquisite sensitivity for flexible regions, (2) polarity and water accessibility profiles across the membrane bilayer, and (3) distances between two spin labeled side chains during protein functioning. Despite the drawback of requiring site-directed mutagenesis for each new piece of information to be collected, EPR can be applied to any complex membrane protein system, independently of its size. This chapter describes the state of the art in the application of site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) EPR to membrane proteins, with specific focus on the different types of information which can be obtained with continuous wave and pulsed techniques. 

Fig. 5 Orientational polarization profiles A small DLPE system, B large DLPE system, C small DPPC system, and D large DPPC systems. Vertical dotted lines represent the boundaries of lipid/water interface...

Humidity is a very important factor in such studies since vesicant agents hydrolyse at a relatively rapid rate. The polarity profile can be studied using lipid films supported on glass wool in a hydration chamber. These samples can be equilibrated at 100% relative humidity or dehydrated over phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) the removal of water would effectively abolish the polarity profile. The main point is... 

The second application of luminescence spectroscopy in polymer science has been as a tool to study polymer systems themselves. Here a fluorescent or phosphorescent dye is introduced into a polymer environment as a molecular sensor of the environment. One chooses the dye with a knowledge of its spectroscopy in the hopes that changes in its emission spectrum, or, in a pulsed experiment, its emission decay profile, will convey detailed molecular level information about the polymer system itself. These are the experiments which mimic applications of luminescent sensor techniques in biology, where these dyes provide information about hydrophobicity in proteins, local polarity at water-membrane interfaces, distances in antibody-antigen interactions, and a wide variety of other issues concerning system morphology and dynamics. 

Conversely, in a membrane model, acetylcholine showed mean log P values very similar to those exhibited in water. This was due to the compound remaining in the vicinity of the polar phospholipid heads, but the disappearance of extended forms decreased the average log P value somewhat. This suggests that an anisotropic environment can heavily modify the conformational profile of a solute, thus selecting the conformational clusters more suitable for optimal interactions. In other words, isotropic media select the conformers, whereas anisotropic media select the conformational clusters. The difference in conformational behavior in isotropic versus anisotropic environments can be explained considering that the physicochemical effects induced by an isotropic medium are homogeneously uniform around the solute so that all conformers are equally influenced by them. In contrast, the physicochemical effects induced by an anisotropic medium are not homogeneously distributed and only some conformational clusters can adapt to them. 

The segment chemical potential ps(o)is also called the o-potential of a solvent It is a specific function expressing the affinity of a solvent S for solute surface of polarity a. Typical o-profiles and o-potentials are shown in Fig. 11.4. From the a-potentials it can clearly be seen that hexane Ukes nonpolar surfaces and increasingly dislikes polar surfaces, that water does notUke nonpolar surfaces (hydrophobic effect), but that it likes both H-bond donor and acceptor surfaces, that methanol likes donor surfaces more than does water, but acceptors less, and many other features. 

FIG. 9 Simulated electrical potential and space charge density profiles at the water-1,2-DCE interface polarized at/= 5 in the absence (a) and in the presence (b) of zwitterionic phospholipids. The supporting electrolyte concentrations are c° = 20 mM and c = 1000 mM. The molecular area of the phospholipids is 150 A, and the corresponding surface charge density is a = 10.7 xC/cm. The distance between the planes of charge associated with the headgroups is d = 3 A. 

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