From shell to cell: neutron scattering studies of biological water dynamics and coupling to activity

Authors

A. Frölich, Institut de Biologie Structurale, France
F. Gabel, Institut de Biologie Structurale, France
M. Jasnin, Institut Laue Langevin, France
U. Lehnert, Institut de Biologie Structurale, France
D. Oesterhelt, Max Planck Institut für Biochemie, Germany
A. Stadler, Institut Laue Langevin, France
M. Tehei, University of WollongongFollow
M. Weik, Institut Laue Langevin, France
K. Wood, Institut de Biologie Structurale, France
G. Zaccai, Institut Laue Langevin, France

RIS ID

28416

Publication Details

This article originally published as Frolich, A, Gabel, F, Jasnin, M, Lehnert, U, Oesterhelt, D, Stadler, A, Tehei, M, Weik, M, Wood, K and Zaccai, G, From shell to cell: neutron scattering studies of biological water dynamics and coupling to activity, Faraday Discussions, 141, 2008, 117-130. Copyright Royal Society of Chemistry 2008. Original article available here

Abstract

An integrated picture of hydration shell dynamics and of its coupling to functional macromolecular motions is proposed from studies on a soluble protein, on a membrane protein in its natural lipid environment, and on the intracellular environment in bacteria and red blood cells. Water dynamics in multimolar salt solutions was also examined, in the context of the very slow water component previously discovered in the cytoplasm of extreme halophilic archaea. The data were obtained from neutron scattering by using deuterium labelling to focus on the dynamics of different parts of the complex systems examined.