[en] Proteins are complex macromolecules that evolved over billions of years to be active in aqueous solution. Water is a key element that stabilizes their structure, and most structural studies on proteins have thus been carried out in aqueous environment. However, recent experimental approaches have opened the possibility to gain structural information on proteins from gas-phase measurements. The obtained results revealed significant structural memory in proteins when transferred from water to the gas phase. However, after several years of experimental and theoretical research, the nature of the structural changes induced by vaporization, the exact characteristics of proteins in the gas phase, and the physicochemical forces stabilizing dehydrated proteins are still unclear. We will review here these issues using both experimental and theoretical sources of information.
Research center :
DER Chimie Giga-Systems Biology and Chemical Biology - ULiège
Meyer, Tim; Theoretische und computergest ¨ utzte Biophysik, Max-Planck- Institut f ¨ ur biophysikalische Chemie, G¨ ottingen, Germany
Gabelica, Valérie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie (sciences) > GIGA-R : Laboratoire de spectrométrie de masse (L.S.M.)
Grubmüller, Helmut; 3Joint IRB - BSC Program on Computational Biology, Institute for Research in Biomedicine ; Parc Cient´ıfic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain 4Departament de Bioqu´ımica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Barcelona ; Spain
Orozco, Modesto; Theoretische und computergest ¨ utzte Biophysik, Max-Planck- Institut f ¨ ur biophysikalische Chemie, G¨ ottingen, Germany
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