How Biomolecules Influence Water Structure and Dynamics

First-principles Studies of the Structure and Dynamics of Biomolecules

First-principles biosimulations have become an essential tool in the study of atoms and molecules and, increasingly, in modelling complex systems as those arising in biology. With the appearance of density-functional theory, and gradient-corrected exchange-correlation functionals, the ability to obtain an accurate enough solutions to the electronic Schrödinger equation for systems containing hu...

Water Dynamics in the Hydration Shells of Biomolecules

The structure and function of biomolecules are strongly influenced by their hydration shells. Structural fluctuations and molecular excitations of hydrating water molecules cover a broad range in space and time, from individual water molecules to larger pools and from femtosecond to microsecond time scales. Recent progress in theory and molecular dynamics simulations as well as in ultrafast vib...

The influence of temperature on lysozyme crystals. Structure and dynamics of protein and water.

Lysozyme structures at six different temperatures in the range 95-295 K have been determined using X-ray crystallography at a resolution of 1.7 A. The crystals at lower temperatures had a 7.4% decrease in the unit-cell volume. The volume change was discontinuous with the volume being near 238 000 A(3) from 295 to 250 K and about 220 200 A(3) below 180 K. The thermal expansion of the protein has...

The influence of charge on the structure and dynamics of water encapsulated in reverse micelles.

Hydrogen-bonded structure and relaxation dynamics of water entrapped inside reverse micelles (RMs) composed of surfactants with different charged head groups: sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) (anionic), didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) (cationic) and Igepal CO-520 (Igepal) (nonionic) in cyclohexane (Cy) have been studied as a function of hydration (defined by ). Sub-diffusi...

Emerging Vortex Structure via Biomolecules