Measuring electrostatic fields in both hydrogen-bonding and non-hydrogen-bonding environments using carbonyl vibrational probes.

ABSTRACT: Vibrational probes can provide a direct readout of the local electrostatic field in complex molecular environments, such as protein binding sites and enzyme active sites. This information provides an experimental method to explore the underlying physical causes of important biomolecular processes such as binding and catalysis. However, specific chemical interactions such as hydrogen bonds can have complicated effects on vibrational probes and confound simple electrostatic interpretations of their frequency shifts. We employ vibrational Stark spectroscopy along with infrared spectroscopy of carbonyl probes in different solvent environments and in ribonuclease S to understand the sensitivity of carbonyl frequencies to electrostatic fields, including those due to hydrogen bonds. Additionally,

SUBMITTER: Fried SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3762491 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature