Extremely rapid water: Scientists decipher a protein-bound water chain
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 12:31
in Physics & Chemistry
Researchers from the RUB-Department of Biophysics of Prof. Dr. Klaus Gerwert have succeeded in providing evidence that a protein is capable of creating a water molecule chain for a few milliseconds for the directed proton transfer. The combination of vibrational spectroscopy and biomolecular simulations enabled the elucidation of the proton pump mechanism of a cell-membrane protein in atomic detail. The researchers demonstrated that protein-bound water molecules play a decisive role in the function. Their results were selected for the Early Edition of PNAS.