Ions differ in their ability to salt out proteins from solution as expressed in the lyotropic or Hofmeister series of cations and anions. Since its first formulation in 1888, this series has been invoked in a plethora of effects, going beyond the original salting out/salting in idea to include enzyme activities and the crystallization of proteins, as well as to processes not involving proteins like ion exchange, the surface tension of electrolytes, or bubble coalescence. Although it has been clear that the Hofmeister series is intimately connected to ion hydration in homogeneous and heterogeneous environments and to ion pairing, its molecular origin has not been fully understood. This situation could have been summarized as follows: Many chemists used the Hofmeister series as a mantra to put a label on ion-specific behavior in various environments, rather than to reach a molecular level understanding and, consequently, an ability to predict a particular effect of a given salt ion on proteins in solutions. In this Feature Article we show that the cationic and anionic Hofmeister series can now be rationalized primarily in terms of specific interactions of salt ions with the backbone and charged side chain groups at the protein surface in solution. At the same time, we demonstrate the limitations of separating Hofmeister effects into independent cationic and anionic contributions due to the electroneutrality condition, as well as specific ion pairing, leading to interactions of ions of opposite polarity. Finally, we outline the route beyond Hofmeister chemistry in the direction of understanding specific roles of ions in various biological functionalities, where generic Hofmeister-type interactions can be complemented or even overruled by particular steric arrangements in various ion binding sites.

Ions induce changes in the H-bond network of water that extend by >20 nm, vary for H2O and D2O, and lead to surface tension anomalies.

We investigated salt interactions with butyramide as a simple mimic of cation interactions with protein backbones. The experiments were performed in aqueous metal chloride solutions using two spectroscopic techniques. In the first, which provided information about contact pair formation, the response of the amide I band to the nature and concentration of salt was monitored in bulk aqueous solutions via attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was found that molar concentrations of well-hydrated metal cations (Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Li(+)) led to the rise of a peak assigned to metal cation-bound amides (1645 cm(-1)) and a decrease in the peak associated with purely water-bound amides (1620 cm(-1)). In a complementary set of experiments, the effect of cation identity and concentration was investigated at the air/butyramide/water interface via vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. In these studies, metal ion-amide binding led to the ordering of the adjacent water layer. Such experiments were sensitive to the interfacial partitioning of cations in either a contact pair with the amide or as a solvent separated pair. In both experiments, the ordering of the interactions of the cations was: Ca(2+) > Mg(2+) > Li(+) > Na(+) ≈ K(+). This is a direct cationic Hofmeister series. Even for Ca(2+), however, the apparent equilibrium dissociation constant of the cation with the amide carbonyl oxygen was no tighter than ∼8.5 M. For Na(+) and K(+), no evidence was found for any binding. As such, the interactions of metal cations with amides are far weaker than the analogous binding of weakly hydrated anions.

Ion-specific effects on salting-in and salting-out of proteins, protein denaturation, as well as enzymatic activity are typically rationalized in terms of the Hofmeister series. Here, we demonstrate by means of NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations that the traditional explanation of the Hofmeister ordering of ions in terms of their bulk hydration properties is inadequate. Using triglycine as a model system, we show that the Hofmeister series for anions changes from a direct to a reversed series upon uncapping the N-terminus. Weakly hydrated anions, such as iodide and thiocyanate, interact with the peptide bond, while strongly hydrated anions like sulfate are repelled from it. In contrast, reversed order in interactions of anions is observed at the positively charged, uncapped N-terminus, and by analogy, this should also be the case at side chains of positively charged amino acids. These results demonstrate that the specific chemical and physical properties of peptides and proteins play a fundamental role in ion-specific effects. The present study thus provides a molecular rationalization of Hofmeister ordering for the anions. It also provides a route for tuning these interactions by titration or mutation of basic amino acid residues on the protein surface.