From shell to cell: neutron scattering studies of biological water dynamics and coupling to activity (original) (raw)
Related papers
Neutron scattering in the biological sciences: progress and prospects
Acta Crystallographica Section D Structural Biology
The scattering of neutrons can be used to provide information on the structure and dynamics of biological systems on multiple length and time scales. Pursuant to a National Science Foundation-funded workshop in February 2018, recent developments in this field are reviewed here, as well as future prospects that can be expected given recent advances in sources, instrumentation and computational power and methods. Crystallography, solution scattering, dynamics, membranes, labeling and imaging are examined. For the extraction of maximum information, the incorporation of judicious specific deuterium labeling, the integration of several types of experiment, and interpretation using high-performance computer simulation models are often found to be particularly powerful.
Protein dynamics studied by neutron scattering
Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics, 2002
1. Introduction 3282. Basic concepts of neutron scattering 3292.1 Introduction 3292.2 Neutron-scattering functions 3312.3 Coherent and incoherent neutron scattering. The particular role of hydrogen in incoherent scattering 3322.4 Total elastic scattering, EISF and mean square displacement (MSD) 3332.5 Quasielastic scattering and relaxation function 3342.6 Inelastic scattering and density of states 3353. Experimental aspects and instruments 3353.1 Energy and space resolution 3353.2 General sample aspects 3353.3 Potential effects of D2O on dynamics 3363.4 Experimental 2H (deuterium) labelling 3364. Physics of protein dynamics 3364.1 Models 3364.2 The dynamical transition 3384.3 Effective force constants 3395. Dynamics of hydrated protein powders 3395.1 First experiments on myoglobin 3405.2 Dynamical transitions in other proteins 3405.3 The role of hydration water 3415.4 Influence of the solvent 3445.5 Diffusional motions within proteins by QENS 3465.6 Inelastic neutron scattering and ...
Specific cellular water dynamics observed in vivo by neutron scattering and NMR
Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, 2010
Neutron scattering, by using deuterium labelling, revealed how intracellular water dynamics, measured in vivo in E. coli, human red blood cells and the extreme halophile, Haloarcula marismortui, depends on the cell type and nature of the cytoplasm. The method uniquely permits the determination of motions on the molecular length (approximately ångstrøm) and time (pico- to nanosecond) scales. In the bacterial and human cells, intracellular water beyond the hydration shells of cytoplasmic macromolecules and membrane faces flows as freely as liquid water. It is not "tamed" by confinement. In contrast, in the extreme halophile archaeon, in addition to free and hydration water an intracellular water component was observed with significantly slowed down translational diffusion. The results are discussed and compared to observations in E. coli and Haloarcula marismortui by deuteron spin relaxation in NMR--a method that is sensitive to water rotational dynamics on a wide range of t...
Water dynamics in MCF-7 breast cancer cells: a neutron scattering descriptive study
Scientific Reports, 2019
Water mobility in cancer cells could be a powerful parameter to predict the progression or remission of tumors. In the present descriptive work, new insight into this concept was achieved by combining neutron scattering and thermal analyses. The results provide the first step to untangle the role played by water dynamics in breast cancer cells (MCF-7) after treatment with a chemotherapy drug. By thermal analyses, the cells were probed as micrometric reservoirs of bulk-like and confined water populations. Under this perspective we showed that the drug clearly alters the properties of the confined water. We have independently validated this idea by accessing the cellular water dynamics using inelastic neutron scattering. Finally, analysis of the quasi-elastic neutron scattering data allows us to hypothesize that, in this particular cell line, diffusion increases in the intracellular water in response to the action of the drug on the nanosecond timescale.
Dynamics of Soft Matter, 2011
The combination of molecular dynamics simulation and neutron scattering techniques has emerged as a highly synergistic approach to elucidate the atomistic details of the structure, dynamics and functions of biological systems. Simulation models can be tested by calculating neutron scattering structure factors and comparing the results directly with experiments. If the scattering profiles agree the simulations can be used to provide a detailed decomposition and interpretation of the experiments, and if not, the models can be rationally adjusted. Comparison with neutron experiment can be made at the level of the scattering functions or, less directly, of structural and dynamical quantities derived from them. Here, we examine the combination of simulation and experiment in the interpretation of SANS and inelastic scattering experiments on the structure and dynamics of proteins and other biopolymers.
The power of quasielastic neutron scattering to probe biophysical systems
Physica B: Condensed Matter, 1993
Neutron high-resolution spectroscopic studies of biomolecular dynamics have been pursued actively in the last decade due to the recognised role of the microscopic dynamics in determining the functional properties of many biomolecular assemblies. As a result of instrumental advances and progress in molecular dynamics simulations it is nowadays possible to describe quantitatively the complex low-frequency motions exhibited by biologically active systems. Some selected examples referring to different biopolymers and biological membranes will be illustrated.
Water Dynamics in Cancer Cells: Lessons from Quasielastic Neutron Scattering
Medicina
The severity of the cancer statistics around the globe and the complexity involving the behavior of cancer cells inevitably calls for contributions from multidisciplinary areas of research. As such, materials science became a powerful asset to support biological research in comprehending the macro and microscopic behavior of cancer cells and untangling factors that may contribute to their progression or remission. The contributions of cellular water dynamics in this process have always been debated and, in recent years, experimental works performed with Quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) brought new perspectives to these discussions. In this review, we address these works and highlight the value of QENS in comprehending the role played by water molecules in tumor cells and their response to external agents, particularly chemotherapy drugs. In addition, this paper provides an overview of QENS intended for scientists with different backgrounds and comments on the possibilities to ...
The power of quasielectric neutron scattering to probe biophysical systems
Physica B: Condensed Matter, 1992
Neutron high-resolution spectroscopic studies of biomolecular dynamics have been pursued actively in the last decade due to the recognised role of the microscopic dynamics in determining the functional properties of many biomolecular assemblies. As a result of instrumental advances and progress in molecular dynamics simulations it is nowadays possible to describe quantitatively the complex low-frequency motions exhibited by biologically active systems. Some selected examples referring to different biopolymers and biological membranes will be illustrated.