Real-time Monitoring of Hydrophobic Aggregation Reveals a Critical Role of Cooperativity in Hydrophobic Effect

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2017 Jun 1

PMID 28561067

Citations 15

Authors

Liguo Jiang

Siqin Cao

Peter Pak-Hang Cheung

Xiaoyan Zheng

Chris Wai Tung Leung

Qian Peng

Zhigang Shuai

Ben Zhong Tang

Shuhuai Yao

Xuhui Huang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The hydrophobic interaction drives nonpolar solutes to aggregate in aqueous solution, and hence plays a critical role in many fundamental processes in nature. An important property intrinsic to hydrophobic interaction is its cooperative nature, which is originated from the collective motions of water hydrogen bond networks surrounding hydrophobic solutes. This property is widely believed to enhance the formation of hydrophobic core in proteins. However, cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions has not been successfully characterized by experiments. Here, we quantify cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions by real-time monitoring the aggregation of hydrophobic solute (hexaphenylsilole, HPS) in a microfluidic mixer. We show that association of a HPS molecule to its aggregate in water occurs at sub-microsecond, and the free energy change is -5.8 to -13.6 kcal mol. Most strikingly, we discover that cooperativity constitutes up to 40% of this free energy. Our results provide quantitative evidence for the critical role of cooperativity in hydrophobic interactions.

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