Salt-Induced Universal Slowing Down of the Short-Time Self-Diffusion of a Globular Protein in Aqueous Solution

Marco Grimaldo, Felix Roosen-Runge, Marcus Hennig, Fabio Zanini, Fajun Zhang, Michaela Zamponi, Niina Jalarvo, Frank Schreiber, Tilo Seydel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

The short-time self-diffusion D of the globular model protein bovine serum albumin in aqueous (D2O) solutions has been measured comprehensively as a function of the protein and trivalent salt (YCl3) concentration, noted cp and cs, respectively. We observe that D follows a universal master curve D(cs,cp) = D(cs = 0,cp) g(cs/cp), where D(cs = 0,cp) is the diffusion coefficient in the absence of salt and g(cs/cp) is a scalar function solely depending on the ratio of the salt and protein concentration. This observation is consistent with a universal scaling of the bonding probability in a picture of cluster formation of patchy particles. The finding corroborates the predictive power of the description of proteins as colloids with distinct attractive ion-activated surface patches.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2577-2582
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Volume6
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 19 2015
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft240526267

    Keywords

    • "patchy" colloids
    • cluster formation
    • neutron spectroscopy
    • protein dynamics
    • self-assembly

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