Freezable and unfreezable hydration water; Distinct contributions to protein dynamics revealed by neutron scattering

Yamamoto, Naoki*; Kofu, Maiko; Nakajima, Kenji; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Shibayama, Naoya*

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Internet), 12(8), p.2172 - 2176, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c03786

Hydration water plays a crucial role for activating the protein dynamics required for functional expression. Yet, the details are not understood about how hydration water couples with protein dynamics. A temperature hysteresis of the ice formation of hydration water is a key phenomenon to understand which type of hydration water, unfreezable or freezable hydration water, is crucial for the activation of protein dynamics. Using neutron scattering, we observed a temperature-hysteresis phenomenon in the diffraction peaks of the ice of freezable hydration water, whereas protein dynamics did not show any temperature hysteresis. These results show that the protein dynamics is not coupled with freezable hydration water dynamics, and unfreezable hydration water is essential for the activation of protein dynamics.