Real-Time Detection of Protein-Water Dynamics upon Protein Folding by Terahertz Absorption Spectroscopy

摘要

Recently, there has been a growing interest in probing not just the dynamics of self-assembling macromolecules but the dynamics of their solvation shells as well. Dielectric, Raman, fluorescence, and NMR spectroscopies, neutron scattering, and crystallography all provide insights, but only terahertz absorption spectroscopy (wavelength range 0.1-1 mm; 1 THz = 1 ps~(-1)) directly probes the picosecond solvent dynamics over any desired time scale and is sensitive to hydration layers far from the molecular surface.