Washington D.C: Water is the basic unit of life and it is impossible to live without it. Ever wondered why? A new study has an explanation that may answer many such questions.
Ohio State University lead researcher Dongping Zhong along with his team shed new light on how and why water is essential to life. Zhong called the study a ‘major step forward’ in the understanding of water-protein interactions.
The study finds the strongest evidence that proteins can't fold themselves, but can fold into particular shapes to enable biological reactions.
Zhong, who is also a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and his team used ultra-fast laser pulses to take snapshots of water molecules moving around a DNA polymerase, the kind of protein that helps DNA reproduce.
The team inserted molecules of the amino acid tryptophan into the protein as a probe and measured how water moved around it.
The findings showed how water molecules typically flow around each other at picosecond speeds, while proteins fold at nanosecond speeds, 1,000 times slower.
Previously, Zhong’s group demonstrated that the water molecules slow down when they encounter a protein. Water molecules are still moving 100 times faster than a protein when they connect with it.
In the new study, the researchers were able to determine that the water molecules directly touched the protein’s ‘side chains,’ the portions of the protein molecule that bind and unbind with each other to enable folding and function. The researchers were also able to note the timing of movement in the molecules.
Water can’t arbitrarily shape a protein, Zhong explained. Proteins can only fold and unfold in a few different ways depending on the amino acids they’re made of.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
(With Agencies)
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