Detecting the First Hydration Shell Structure around Biomolecules at Interfaces.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the role of water in biological processes remains a central challenge in the life sciences. Water structures in hydration shells of biomolecules are difficult to study in situ due to overwhelming background from aqueous environments. Biological interfaces introduce additional complexity because biomolecular hydration differs at interfaces compared to bulk solution. Here, we perform experimental and computational studies of chiral sum frequency generation (chiral SFG) spectroscopy to probe chirality transfer from a protein to the surrounding water molecules. This work reveals that chiral SFG probes the first hydration shell around the protein almost exclusively. We explain the selectivity to the first hydration shell in terms of the asymmetry induced by the protein stru

SUBMITTER: Konstantinovsky D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9615115 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature