Bending elasticity of saturated and monounsaturated phospholipid membranes studied by the neutron spin echo technique.

We have used neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy to study the effect of bilayer thickness and monounsaturation (existence of a single double bond on one of the aliphatic chains) on the physical properties of unilamellar vesicles. The bending elasticity of saturated and monounsaturated phospholipid bilayers made of phospholipids with alkyl chain length ranging from 14 to 20 carbons was investigated. The bending elasticity κ(c) of phosphatidylcholines (PCs) in the liquid crystalline (L(α)) phase ranges from 0.38 × 10(-19) J for 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine to 0.64 × 10(-19) J for 1,2-dieicosenoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. It was confirmed that, contrary to the strong effect on the main transition temperature, the monounsaturation has a limited influence on the bending elasticity of lipid bilayers. In addition, when the area modulus K(A) varies little with chain unsaturation or length, the elastic ratios (κ(c)/K(A))(1/2) of saturated and monounsaturated phospholipid bilayers varies linearly with lipid hydrophobic thickness d which agrees well with the theory of ideal fluid membranes.

Solvent effects on AOT reverse micelles in liquid and compressed alkanes investigated by neutron spin-echo spectroscopy.

Neutron Spin-Echo (NSE) spectroscopy has been employed to study the interfacial properties of reverse micelles formed with the common surfactant sodium bis-2-ethylhexyl-sulfosuccinate (AOT) in liquid alkane solvents and compressed propane. NSE spectroscopy provides a means to measure small energy transfers for incident neutrons that correspond to thermal fluctuations on the nanosecond time scale and has been applied to the study of colloidal systems. NSE offers the unique ability to perform dynamic measurements of thermally induced shape fluctuation in the AOT surfactant monolayer. This study investigates the effects of the bulk solvent properties, water content, and the addition of octanol cosurfactant on the bending elasticity of AOT reverse micelles and the reverse micelle dynamics. By altering these solvent properties, specific trends in the bending elasticity constant, k, are observed where increasing k corresponds to an increase in micelle rigidity and a decrease in intermicellar exchange rate, k(ex). The observed corresponding trends in k and k(ex) are significant in relating the dynamics of microemulsions and their application as a reaction media. Compressed propane was also examined for the first time with a high-pressure, compressible bulk solvent where variations in temperature and pressure are used to tune the properties of the bulk phase. A decrease in the bending elasticity is observed for the d-propane/AOT/W = 8 reverse micelle system by simultaneously increasing the temperature and pressure, maintaining constant density. With isopycnic conditions, a constant translational diffusion of the reverse micelles through the bulk phase is observed, conforming to the Stokes-Einstein relationship.

Effect of charged lidocaine on static and dynamic properties of model bio-membranes.

The effect of the charged lidocaine on the structure and dynamics of DMPC/DMPG (mass fraction of 95/5) unilamellar vesicles has been investigated. Changes in membrane organization caused by the presence of lidocaine were detected through small angle neutron scattering experiments. Our results suggest that the presence of lidocaine in the vicinity of the headgroups of lipid membranes leads to an increase of the area per lipid molecule and to a decrease of membrane thickness. Such changes in membrane structure may induce disordering of the tail group. This scenario explains the reduction of the main transition temperature of lipid membranes, as the fraction of lidocaine per lipid molecules increases, which was evident from differential scanning calorimetry results. Furthermore neutron spin echo spectroscopy was used for the dynamics measurements and the results reveal that presence of charged lidocaine increases the bending elasticity of the lipid membranes in the fluid phase and slows the temperature-dependent change of bending elasticity across the main transition temperature.

Pressure denaturation of staphylococcal nuclease studied by neutron small-angle scattering and molecular simulation.

We studied the pressure-induced folding/unfolding transition of staphylococcal nuclease (SN) over a pressure range of approximately 1-3 kilobars at 25 degrees C by small-angle neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations. We find that applying pressure leads to a twofold increase in the radius of gyration derived from the small-angle neutron scattering spectra, and P(r), the pair distance distribution function, broadens and shows a transition from a unimodal to a bimodal distribution as the protein unfolds. The results indicate that the globular structure of SN is retained across the folding/unfolding transition although this structure is less compact and elongated relative to the native structure. Pressure-induced unfolding is initiated in the molecular dynamics simulations by inserting water molecules into the protein interior and applying pressure. The P(r) calculated from these simulations likewise broadens and shows a similar unimodal-to-bimodal transition with increasing pressure. The simulations also reveal that the bimodal P(r) for the pressure-unfolded state arises as the protein expands and forms two subdomains that effectively diffuse apart during initial stages of unfolding. Hydrophobic contact maps derived from the simulations show that water insertions into the protein interior and the application of pressure together destabilize hydrophobic contacts between these two subdomains. The findings support a mechanism for the pressure-induced unfolding of SN in which water penetration into the hydrophobic core plays a central role.

Counterion associative behavior with flexible polyelectrolytes.

At low ionic strength, organic counterions dress a flexible charged polymer as measured directly by small-angle neutron scattering and neutron spin-echo spectroscopy. This dressed state, quantified by the concentration dependence of the static correlation length, illustrates the polymer-counterion coupled nature on the nanometer length scale. The counterions, made visible by selective hydrogen and deuterium labeling, undress from the polymeric template by addition of sodium chloride. The addition of this electrolyte leads to two effects: increased Debye electrostatic screening and decoupled organic counterion-polymer correlations. Neutron spin-echo spectroscopy measures a slowing down of the effective diffusion coefficient of the labeled counterions at the length scale of 8 nm, the static correlation length, indicating the nanosecond counterion dynamics mimics the polymer. These experiments, performed with semidilute solutions of tetramethylammonium poly(styrene sulfonate) [(h-TMA(+)) d-PSS], apply to relevant biopolymers including single and double stranded DNA and unfolded proteins, which undergo orchestrated dynamics of counterions and chain segments to fold, unfold, and assemble.