Proton Traffic Jam: Effect of Nanoconfinement and Acid Concentration on Proton Hopping Mechanism.

The properties of the water network in concentrated HCl acid pools in nanometer-sized reverse nonionic micelles were probed with TeraHertz absorption, dielectric relaxation spectroscopy, and reactive force field simulations capable of describing proton hopping mechanisms. We identify that only at a critical micelle size of W0 =9 do solvated proton complexes form in the water pool, accompanied by a change in mechanism from Grotthuss forward shuttling to one that favors local oscillatory hopping. This is due to a preference for H+ and Cl- ions to adsorb to the micelle interface, together with an acid concentration effect that causes a "traffic jam" in which the short-circuiting of the hydrogen-bonding motif of the hydronium ion decreases the forward hopping rate throughout the water interior even as the micelle size increases. These findings have implications for atmospheric chemistry, biochemical and biophysical environments, and energy materials, as transport of protons vital to these processes can be suppressed due to confinement, aggregation, and/or concentration.

Hydrophobic Collapse of Ubiquitin Generates Rapid Protein-Water Motions.

We report time-resolved measurements of the coupled protein-water modes of solvated ubiquitin during protein folding. Kinetic terahertz absorption (KITA) spectroscopy serves as a label-free technique for monitoring large scale conformational changes and folding of proteins subsequent to a sudden T-jump. We report here KITA measurements at an unprecedented time resolution of 500 ns, a resolution 2 orders of magnitude better than those of any previous KITA measurements, which reveal the coupled ubiquitin-solvent dynamics even in the initial phase of hydrophobic collapse. Complementary equilibrium experiments and molecular simulations of ubiquitin solutions are performed to clarify non-equilibrium contributions and reveal the molecular picture upon a change in structure, respectively. On the basis of our results, we propose that in the case of ubiquitin a rapid (<500 ns) initial phase of the hydrophobic collapse from the elongated protein to a molten globule structure precedes secondary structure formation. We find that these very first steps, including large-amplitude changes within the unfolded manifold, are accompanied by a rapid (<500 ns) pronounced change of the coupled protein-solvent response. The KITA response upon secondary structure formation exhibits an opposite sign, which indicates a distinct effect on the solvent-exposed surface.

Local chemistry of the surfactant's head groups determines protein stability in reverse micelles.

When comparing protein folding in vitro and in vivo significant differences have been found. This has been attributed to crowding and confinement effects. Using a combination of GHz- and THz-dielectric relaxation spectroscopy and MD simulations, we studied hydration dynamics and reviewed protein stability data inside sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) reverse micelles which are model systems for confinement. We find that water inside anionic AOT and cationic CTAB reverse micelles is characterized by a strong dielectric depolarization giving rise to a very low relative permittivity compared to an unconfined solution. Despite differences in the hydration dynamics of the surfactant's head groups, simulations using the two-phase thermodynamics method predict a similar reduction in water entropy for both reverse micelle systems compared to bulk water. When we compare the stability data of proteins in these reverse micelles we find that in contrast to our initial expectation, protein stability correlates rather with the local chemistry of the hydrated head groups than with the excluded volume effect or the low global permittivity.