Nitrogen -edge soft X-ray natural circular dichroism of histidine thin film

Izumi, Yudai; Tanaka, Masahito*; Tanigawa, Yoshiaki*; Tanabe, Maiko*; Momoki, Yohei*; Iwai, Miki*; Takenaka, Shun*; Ishiyama, Kimihiro*; Kuroki, Misa*; Muro, Takayuki*; Nakagawa, Kazumichi*

We report natural circular dichroism (NCD) spectrum of an amino acid, L-histidine, thin film in the nitrogen -edge energy region. Three positive NCD peaks were observed at 399.9, 401.5, and around 407 eV. The first two peaks were assigned to the 1 transition of the nitrogen atoms in imidazole ring and the other was assigned to the 1 transition of the nitrogen atoms in imidazole ring and amino group. Imidazole ring and amino group are positioned at the side chain distant from and next to the asymmetric carbon, respectively. This result suggests that NCD spectroscopy in the soft X-ray region can selectively pick up the information on local structure around specific atoms, regardless of the position of atoms in molecules. It is interesting in view of application of NCD spectroscopy in the soft X-ray region to investigation of protein structures