Experimental measurement of the strength of a C alpha-H...O bond in a lipid bilayer.
Due to the apolar nature of the lipid bilayer, the weak Calpha-H...O H-bond is thought to contribute significantly toward the stability of transmembrane helical bundles such as glycophorin A (GPA). Here for the first time we measured the strength of such a bond, using vibrational frequency shifts of a dimeric and nondimeric variants of GPA containing a Gly CD2 label. Although the resulting estimated bond strength of 0.88 kcal/mol is relatively weak, several such bonds could contribute significantly toward bundle stabilization.
Arbely
Eyal
E
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat-Ram, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
Arkin
Isaiah T
IT
D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D002244:Carbon; D006859:Hydrogen; D010100:Oxygen