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Phys Rev Lett. 2008 Sep 26;101(13):135501. Epub 2008 Sep 24.

Studies of phononlike low-energy excitations of protein molecules by inelastic x-ray scattering.

Author information

1
Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.

Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations and neutron scattering experiments have shown that many hydrated globular proteins exhibit a universal dynamic transition at TD = 220 K, below which the biological activity of a protein sharply diminishes. We studied the phononlike low-energy excitations of two structurally very different proteins, lysozyme and bovine serum albumin, using inelastic x-ray scattering above and below TD. We found that the excitation energies of the high-Q phonons show a marked softening above TD. This suggests that the large amplitude motions of wavelengths corresponding to this specific Q range are intimately correlated with the increase of biological activities of the proteins.

PMID:
18851459
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.135501
[Indexed for MEDLINE]

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