Hydrophobic hydration, the perturbation of the aqueous solvent near an apolar solute or interface, is a fundamental ingredient in many chemical and biological processes. Both bulk water and aqueous solutions of apolar solutes behave anomalously at low temperatures for reasons that are not fully understood. Here, we use (2)H NMR relaxation to characterize the rotational dynamics in hydrophobic hydration shells over a wide temperature range, extending down to 243 K. We examine four partly hydrophobic solutes: the peptides N-acetyl-glycine-N'-methylamide and N-acetyl-leucine-N'-methylamide, and the osmolytes trimethylamine N-oxide and tetramethylurea. For all four solutes, we find that water rotates with lower activation energy in the hydration shell than in bulk water below 255 +/- 2 K. At still lower temperatures, water rotation is predicted to be faster in the shell than in bulk. We rationalize this behavior in terms of the geometric constraints imposed by the solute. These findings reverse the classical "iceberg" view of hydrophobic hydration by indicating that hydrophobic hydration water is less ice-like than bulk water. Our results also challenge the "structural temperature" concept. The two investigated osmolytes have opposite effects on protein stability but have virtually the same effect on water dynamics, suggesting that they do not act indirectly via solvent perturbations. The NMR-derived picture of hydrophobic hydration dynamics differs substantially from views emerging from recent quasielastic neutron scattering and pump-probe infrared spectroscopy studies of the same solutes. We discuss the possible reasons for these discrepancies.

Most of the decisive molecular events in biology take place at the protein-water interface. The dynamical properties of the hydration layer are therefore of fundamental importance. To characterize the dynamical heterogeneity and rotational activation energy in the hydration layer, we measured the (17)O spin relaxation rate in dilute solutions of three proteins in a wide temperature range extending down to 238 K. We find that the rotational correlation time can be described by a power-law distribution with exponent 2.1-2.3. Except for a small fraction of secluded hydration sites, the dynamic perturbation in the hydration layer is the same for all proteins and does not differ in any essential way from the hydration shell of small organic solutes. In both cases, the dynamic perturbation factor is <2 at room temperature and exhibits a maximum near 262 K. This maximum implies that, at low temperatures, the rate of water molecule rotation has a weaker temperature dependence in the hydration layer than in bulk water. We attribute this difference to the temperature-independent constraints that the protein surface imposes on the water H-bond network. The free hydration layer studied here differs qualitatively from confined water in solid protein powder samples.

One of the outstanding challenges presented by liquid water is to understand how molecules can move on a picosecond time scale despite being incorporated in a three-dimensional network of relatively strong H-bonds. This challenge is exacerbated in the supercooled state, where the dramatic slowing down of structural dynamics is reminiscent of the, equally poorly understood, generic behavior of liquids near the glass transition temperature. By probing single-molecule dynamics on a wide range of time and length scales, quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) can potentially reveal the mechanistic details of water's structural dynamics, but because of interpretational ambiguities this potential has not been fully realized. To resolve these issues, we present here an extensive set of high-quality QENS data from water in the range 253-293 K and a corresponding set of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to facilitate and validate the interpretation. Using a model-free approach, we analyze the QENS data in terms of two motional components. Based on the dynamical clustering observed in MD trajectories, we identify these components with two distinct types of structural dynamics: picosecond local (L) structural fluctuations within dynamical basins and slower interbasin jumps (J). The Q-dependence of the dominant QENS component, associated with J dynamics, can be quantitatively rationalized with a continuous-time random walk (CTRW) model with an apparent jump length that depends on low-order moments of the jump length and waiting time distributions. Using a simple coarse-graining algorithm to quantitatively identify dynamical basins, we map the newtonian MD trajectory on a CTRW trajectory, from which the jump length and waiting time distributions are computed. The jump length distribution is gaussian and the rms jump length increases from 1.5 to 1.9 Å as the temperature increases from 253 to 293 K. The rms basin radius increases from 0.71 to 0.75 Å over the same range. The waiting time distribution is exponential at all investigated temperatures, ruling out significant dynamical heterogeneity. However, a simulation at 238 K reveals a small but significant dynamical heterogeneity. The macroscopic diffusion coefficient deduced from the QENS data agrees quantitatively with NMR and tracer results. We compare our QENS analysis with existing approaches, arguing that the apparent dynamical heterogeneity implied by stretched exponential fitting functions results from the failure to distinguish intrabasin (L) from interbasin (J) structural dynamics. We propose that the apparent dynamical singularity at ∼220 K corresponds to freezing out of J dynamics, while the calorimetric glass transition corresponds to freezing out of L dynamics.

The recognition of carbohydrates by proteins is a fundamental aspect of communication within and between living cells. Understanding the molecular basis of carbohydrate–protein interactions is a prerequisite for the rational design of synthetic ligands. Here we report the high- to ultra-high-resolution crystal structures of the carbohydrate recognition domain of galectin-3 (Gal3C) in the ligand-free state (1.08 Å at 100 K, 1.25 Å at 298 K) and in complex with lactose (0.86 Å) or glycerol (0.9 Å). These structures reveal striking similarities in the positions of water and carbohydrate oxygen atoms in all three states, indicating that the binding site of Gal3C is preorganized to coordinate oxygen atoms in an arrangement that is nearly optimal for the recognition of β-galactosides. Deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation dispersion experiments and molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that all water molecules in the lactose-binding site exchange with bulk water on a time scale of nanoseconds or shorter. Nevertheless, molecular dynamics simulations identify transient water binding at sites that agree well with those observed by crystallography, indicating that the energy landscape of the binding site is maintained in solution. All heavy atoms of glycerol are positioned like the corresponding atoms of lactose in the Gal3C complexes. However, binding of glycerol to Gal3C is insignificant in solution at room temperature, as monitored by NMR spectroscopy or isothermal titration calorimetry under conditions where lactose binding is readily detected. These observations make a case for protein cryo-crystallography as a valuable screening method in fragment-based drug discovery and further suggest that identification of water sites might inform inhibitor design.

Water 2H and 17O spin relaxation is used to study water dynamics in the hydration layers of two small peptides, two globular proteins and in living cells of two microorganisms. The dynamical heterogeneity of hydration water is characterized by performing relaxation measurements over a wide temperature range, extending deeply into the supercooled regime, or by covering a wide frequency range. Protein hydration layers can be described by a power-law distribution of rotational correlation times with an exponent close to 2. This distribution comprises a small fraction of protein-specific hydration sites, where water rotation is strongly retarded, and a dominant fraction of generic hydration sites, where water rotation is as fast as in the hydration shells of small peptides. The generic dynamic perturbation factor is less than 2 at room temperature and exhibits a maximum near 260 K. The dynamic perturbation is induced by H-bond constraints that interfere with the cooperative mechanism that facilitates rotation in bulk water. Because these constraints are temperature-independent, hydration water does not follow the super-Arrhenius temperature dependence of bulk water. Water in living cells behaves as expected from studies of simpler model systems, the only difference being a larger fraction of secluded (strongly perturbed) hydration sites associated with the supramolecular organization in the cell. Intracellular water that is not in direct contact with biopolymers has essentially the same dynamics as bulk water. There is no significant difference in cell water dynamics between mesophilic and halophilic organisms, despite the high K+ and Na+ concentrations in the latter.