Rotational correlation times molecules

Small molecules in low viscosity solutions have, typically, rotational correlation times of a few tens of picoseconds, which means that the extreme narrowing conditions usually prevail. As a consequence, the interpretation of certain relaxation parameters, such as carbon-13 and NOE for proton-bearing carbons, is very simple. Basically, tlie DCC for a directly bonded CH pair can be assumed to be known and the experiments yield a value of the correlation time, t. One interesting application of the measurement of is to follow its variation with the site in the molecule (motional anisotropy), with temperature (the correlation... 

Figure 8 Effects of spin diffusion. The NOE between two protons (indicated by the solid line) may be altered by the presence of alternative pathways for the magnetization (dashed lines). The size of the NOE can be calculated for a structure from the experimental mixing time, and the complete relaxation matrix, (Ry), which is a function of all mterproton distances d j and functions describing the motion of the protons, y is the gyromagnetic ratio of the proton, ti is the Planck constant, t is the rotational correlation time, and O) is the Larmor frequency of the proton m the magnetic field. The expression for (Rjj) is an approximation assuming an internally rigid molecule.

In Eq. (4-62) Wq is the Larmor precessional frequency, and Tc is the correlation time, a measure of the rate of molecular motion. The reciprocal of the correlation time is a frequency, and 1/Tc may receive additive contributions from several sources, in particular I/t, where t, is the rotational correlation time, t, is, approximately, the time taken for the molecule to rotate through one radian. Only a rigid molecule is characterized by a single correlation time, and the value of Tc for different atoms or groups in a complex molecule may provide interesting chemical information. 

This simple relaxation theory becomes invalid, however, if motional anisotropy, or internal motions, or both, are involved. Then, the rotational correlation-time in Eq. 30 is an effective correlation-time, containing contributions from reorientation about the principal axes of the rotational-diffusion tensor. In order to separate these contributions, a physical model to describe the manner by which a molecule tumbles is required. Complete expressions for intramolecular, dipolar relaxation-rates for the three classes of spherical, axially symmetric, and asymmetric top molecules have been evaluated by Werbelow and Grant, in order to incorporate into the relaxation theory the appropriate rotational-diffusion model developed by Woess-ner. Methyl internal motion has been treated in a few instances, by using the equations of Woessner and coworkers to describe internal rotation superimposed on the overall, molecular tumbling. Nevertheless, if motional anisotropy is present, it is wiser not to attempt a quantitative determination of interproton distances from measured, proton relaxation-rates, although semiquantitative conclusions are probably justified by neglecting motional anisotropy, as will be seen in the following Section. 

Given the specific, internuclear dipole-dipole contribution terms, p,y, or the cross-relaxation terms, determined by the methods just described, internuclear distances, r , can be calculated according to Eq. 30, assuming isotropic motion in the extreme narrowing region. The values for T<.(y) can be readily estimated from carbon-13 or deuterium spin-lattice relaxation-times. For most organic molecules in solution, carbon-13 / , values conveniently provide the motional information necessary, and, hence, the type of relaxation model to be used, for a pertinent description of molecular reorientations. A prerequisite to this treatment is the assumption that interproton vectors and C- H vectors are characterized by the same rotational correlation-time. For rotational isotropic motion, internuclear distances can be compared according to... 

For folded proteins, relaxation data are commonly interpreted within the framework of the model-free formalism, in which the dynamics are described by an overall rotational correlation time rm, an internal correlation time xe, and an order parameter. S 2 describing the amplitude of the internal motions (Lipari and Szabo, 1982a,b). Model-free analysis is popular because it describes molecular motions in terms of a set of intuitive physical parameters. However, the underlying assumptions of model-free analysis—that the molecule tumbles with a single isotropic correlation time and that internal motions are very much faster than overall tumbling—are of questionable validity for unfolded or partly folded proteins. Nevertheless, qualitative insights into the dynamics of unfolded states can be obtained by model-free analysis (Alexandrescu and Shortle, 1994 Buck etal., 1996 Farrow etal., 1995a). An extension of the model-free analysis to incorporate a spectral density function that assumes a distribution of correlation times on the nanosecond time scale has recently been reported (Buevich et al., 2001 Buevich and Baum, 1999) and better fits the experimental 15N relaxation data for an unfolded protein than does the conventional model-free approach. 

Anisotropy describes the rotational dynamics of reporter molecules or of any sensor segments to which the reporter is rigidly fixed. In the simplest case when both the rotation and the fluorescence decay can be represented by single-exponential functions, the range of variation of anisotropy (r) is determined by variation of the ratio of fluorescence lifetime (xF) and rotational correlation time ([Pg.9]

Figure 4.9 illustrates time-gated imaging of rotational correlation time. Briefly, excitation by linearly polarized radiation will excite fluorophores with dipole components parallel to the excitation polarization axis and so the fluorescence emission will be anisotropically polarized immediately after excitation, with more emission polarized parallel than perpendicular to the polarization axis (r0). Subsequently, however, collisions with solvent molecules will tend to randomize the fluorophore orientations and the emission anistropy will decrease with time (r(t)). The characteristic timescale over which the fluorescence anisotropy decreases can be described (in the simplest case of a spherical molecule) by an exponential decay with a time constant, 6, which is the rotational correlation time and is approximately proportional to the local solvent viscosity and to the size of the fluorophore. Provided that... 

Fig. 16.1 The dependence of Rcross for a pair of protons on the rotational correlation time xc. The curve starts at the left with a rc corresponding to molecules with about 200 g mof1 and ends on...

Steady-state and time-resolved emission anisotropy measurements also allows distinction of single molecules on the basis of their rotational correlation time. 

Bo is the measurement frequency. Rapid exchange between the different fractions is assumed the bulk, water at the protein surface (s) and interior water molecules, buried in the protein and responsible for dispersion (i). In fact, protons from the protein surface exchanging with water lead to dispersion as well and should fall into this category Bulk and s are relevant to extreme narrowing conditions and cannot be separated unless additional data or estimations are available (for instance, an estimation of fg from some knowledge of the protein surface). As far as quadrupolar nuclei are concerned (i.e., and O), dispersion of Rj is relevant of Eqs. (62) and (63) (this evolves according to a Lorentzian function as in Fig. 9) and yield information about the number of water molecules inside the protein and about the protein dynamics (sensed by the buried water molecules). Two important points must be noted about Eqs. (62) and (63). First, the effective correlation time Tc is composed of the protein rotational correlation time and of the residence time iw at the hydration site so that... 

P(Qol, t) is the conditional probability of the orientation being at time t, provided it was Qq a t time zero. The symbol — F is the rotational diffusion operator. In the simplest possible case, F then takes the form of the Laplace operator, acting on the Euler angles ( ml) specifying the orientation of the molecule-fixed frame with respect to the laboratory frame, multiplied with a rotational diffusion coefficient. Dr. Equation (44) then becomes identical to the isotropic rotational diffusion equation. The rotational diffusion coefficient is simply related to the rotational correlation time introduced earlier, by tr = 1I6Dr. 

Abernathy and Sharp employed a similar idea, although in a more simplified form 130). They also worked in terms of a spin Hamiltonian varying with time in discrete steps and let the Hamiltonian contain the Zeeman and the ZFS interactions. They assumed, however, that the ZFS interaction was constant in the molecule-fixed (P) frame and that variation of the Hamiltonian originated only from fluctuation of the P frame with respect to the laboratory frame. These fluctuations were described in terms of Brownian reorientational motion, characterized by a time interval, x, (related to the rotational correlation time x ) and a Gaussian distribution of angular steps. 

Alternatively, in order to take into account the effects of rotational diffusion of a water molecule around the metal-oxygen axis, a rotational correlation time for the metal-H vector was considered as an additional parameter besides the longer overall reorientational time 82). 

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