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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

In Situ Characterization of Hydrated Proteins in Water by SALVI and ToF-SIMS
Published on: February 15, 2016
Water penetration into protein secondary structure revealed by hydrogen-deuterium exchange two-dimensional infrared
Lauren P DeFlores1, Andrei Tokmakoff
1Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy in conjunction with hydrogen-deuterium exchange experiments provides detailed information about solvent penetration into protein structure. Correlating the secondary-structure sensitivity of the amide I vibration and the solvent-exposure sensitivity of amide II provides a direct probe of solvent-inaccessible residues of proteins embedded in the hydrophobic core or those involved in strong hydrogen bonds in secondary structures. Distinct spectral signatures of the cross-peak region arising from the coupling of the amide I and II modes imply a significant degree of structural stability of hydrogen-bonded contacts in alpha-helices and beta-sheets in a series of proteins. Ubiquitin, an alpha/beta-protein, exhibits strong alpha-helical signatures and lacks those of the beta-sheet in the cross-peak region, demonstrating that ubiquitin's beta-sheet exchanges protons with the surrounding solvent and is conformationally unstable.
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